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Russia may stop air traffic control services for Armavia
The Russian air traffic control service threatens to stop servicing the Armenian company Armavia due to debts. If this happens, Armavia will lose not only its Russian routes, but also at least half of its international route network, partly over Russian territory.Officially, the only reason for the conflict is Armavia's financial difficulties. However, the airline’s relationship with Russian dispatchers became further complicated during the investigation into the crash of the Armavia airliner, which crashed on May 3 near Sochi. The Commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee named the plane pilot as the culprit of the accident. In response, Armavia stated that the investigation should have paid attention to the role of other participants in the incident, in particular the dispatchers at Adler airport.
The Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Corporation for Air Traffic Management" announced last Friday that from August 14 it will cease air navigation services for Armavia aircraft in Russian airspace. The reason for such a decisive step was Armavia's debt for services already provided - about 800 thousand dollars.
The state corporation recalled that Armavia had previously been subject to sanctions for the same thing. On February 10, 2006, service on its irregular (charter) flights was discontinued. At the same time, the airline was notified that if the debt was not repaid, flights would not be provided as scheduled. On February 17, Armavia provided a debt repayment schedule, according to which by May 31 it was supposed to reach a normal payment regime.
However, Armavia suffered heavy losses in May. On May 3, one of the four A320 family aircraft it used crashed on approach to Sochi. All 113 people on board were killed. A few days later, Armavia lost another aircraft of the same type in a fire at Amsterdam airport. This time there were no casualties, but after these events the company’s mainline fleet was reduced to one A320, one A319 and two Yak-42.
After the loss of two aircraft, Armavia turned to Russia with a request for a new installment payment of the debt. On June 23, the parties held regular negotiations and agreed on a repayment schedule. However, this schedule is not being met, the state corporation said, and therefore it will be forced to stop servicing Armenian aircraft.
For Armavia, this threatens to seriously disrupt operations. After the bankruptcy of Armenian International Airlines, Armavia received the right to use approximately 2/3 of its route network and now effectively functions as a national airline (although it is 100% owned by Armenian businessman Mikhail Bagdasarov). Now Armavia flies to 29 foreign destinations, including Krasnodar, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don and two Moscow airports - Vnukovo and Domodedovo. A significant part of Armavia’s routes to the CIS countries and Western Europe partially passes over Russian territory. Theoretically, Armavia will be able to fly them bypassing Russia, through the airspace of Turkey, Ukraine and some neighboring countries, lengthening flights and increasing its costs. This, of course, will not improve its financial position, given that, according to Mikhail Bagdasarov’s statement, Armavia is already unprofitable.
The company itself did not comment on the current situation yesterday. At Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports, Vremya Novostei was told that so far Armavia flights are operating as scheduled.