Armenian government releases $10 million for national air carrier
YEREVAN, October 14. /ARKA/. The Armenian government decided today to allocate over 4.73 billion drams (almost $10 million) for the establishment of a new national air carrier to be created with Air Arabia.
The funds will add to the authorized capital of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF). The agreement to create Armenia's national air carrier was signed in July, 2021 by the Armenian National Interests Fund and Air Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier operator.
The agreement calls for the establishment of an independent joint venture company that will operate as a low-cost passenger airline with Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport as its base.
"We are creating a competitive national air carrier with Air Arabia that has a competitive advantage of 20 years of positive experience," said David Papazyan, head of the National Interests Fund.
"A successful program with a partner of such caliber in such a complex sphere as air transportation will serve several other mega-tasks, in particular, it will contribute to making Armenia an attractive country for businessmen and a safe country for investment, a reliable and desirable partner," he said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, explained that the Armenian government and Air Arabia (represented by its subsidiary) are investing $10 million each. The prime minister noted that the Armenian side considers this cooperation important, taking into account the experience of Air Arabia in the creation and development of airlines.
The new national airline is named ‘Fly Arna.’ The name was chosen by the Board of Directors of the joint venture company from over 500 suggestions received in response to the ‘Name the Airline’ competition announced in July 2021.
Following a comprehensive review, the name of the airline was chosen as ‘Fly Arna’ – with the word ‘Arna’ being derived from the name “Armenian National Airlines” by combining the first two letters of the words "ARmenian" with the first letter of "National" and the first letter of "Airlines". -0-
