Hetq: One of 2 Fly Arna planes written off from Armenia registry, sent to India

Political 4 December, 2023 13:53

At the end of November, one of the two Airbus A320 planes operated by the Armenian Fly Arna airline (Armenian National Airlines CJSC) was removed from Armenia’s aircraft registry and moved to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and from there—to India, reports Hetq.am online newspaper of the Republic Armenia (RA).

"The Armenian National Airlines CJSC, which received RA state registration in December 2021, which is the result of Armenian-Arab cooperation, has been conducting flights since July 2022 under the ‘Fly Arna’ brand.

Until recently, on November 24, the airline had 2 Airbus A320s (Armenian registrations: EK-YRB and EK-YRC) in its fleet. Of these, the EK-YRB added to the company's aircraft fleet and received Armenian registration in September 2022, and the EK-YRC—in December of the same year. Both registrations were valid for 5 years each, until 2027. Let us note that in May-December 2022, the Armenian carrier operated another A320 with EK-YRA registration.

On November 24, when the RA Civil Aviation Committee presented the list of planes registered in the Armenian aircraft registry, it became clear that the EK-YRC was deregistered from the Armenian registry; that is, only the EK-YRB remained in the company's fleet, which continues to fly. But the EK-YRC, as we learn from online flight tracking websites, left Yerevan for Sharjah on November 9.

Let's remind that 49% of the shares of Armenian National Airlines CJSC belong to the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF), another 49% is owned by Air Arabia, which is based in the city of Sharjah, UAE, despite, according to the documents, the International Business Company (FZE), which is actually one of the organizations of the Air Arabia group, operating in the International Free Economic Zone (SAIF Zone) of Sharjah airport, is registered as the owner of the latter's share.. The owner of the remaining 2% is Varuzhan Nergizian, a Lebanese Armenian businessman, RA citizen (…).

In other words, it is no coincidence that the former EK-YRC left Yerevan for Sharjah at the beginning of November. According to aviation sources, this aircraft, which was made in 2007 and was operated in Spain, UAE, and Egypt before being brought to Armenia, was registered again in the UAE as part of Air Arabia (A6-AQH)," Hetq writes.