YEREVAN, October 17. / ARKA /. Armenia’s international airport Zvartnots in Yerevan and Shirak airport in the second largest town of Gyumri handled 1.6 million passengers in January-September 2014, an increase of 24.2 percent from the year before, Armenia’s Chief Civil Aviation Department said today.





It said 825,971 people left the country through the airport in the first nine months of the year, up from 665,809 in the same period last year, and 774,017 passengers arrived, up from 622,585.





The share of passengers who left the country in the total passenger traffic was 51.6%, as much as in the first nine months of 2013, it said.





The amount of cargo transported by air traffic increased by 6.8% to 8,126 tons, and the number of takeoffs and landings increased by 25.9% to 8,178.





Zvartnots and Shirak airports are run by Armenia-International Airports, a company owned by an Argentine citizen of Armenian descent Eduardo Eurnekian. In 2001 the company signed a concesional agreement with the government to manage the airports for 30 years. -0-





18:36 17.10.2014