Tbilisi International Airport and Georgian Civil Aviation Agency did not respond to queries about the number of Armenian citizens flying from Georgian airports, based on Armenian passports processed.

The Armenian government’s decision followed the collapse of leading carrier Armavia in 2013 which left the country with a dramatic void as in 2011-2012 the company operated 48% of all passengers’ air traffic. The USAID analysis conducted on 39 international non-stop routes to and from Yerevan and between other regions in the world highlighted that in late 2012 fares for travel to and from Armenia were consistently higher than fares in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. The new policy aimed at liberalizing the market with lower prices stimulating travel thus leading to increase passengers’ traffic. It led to some results as new players, like Air Armenia, got in the market and prices did register a decline. However, according to Shahen Petrosyan, who headed the government’s general department of civil aviation in the 1990s, the drop is in line with the global trend, not a direct result of the program.

The saga of debt-ridden Armavia was painful, but it was not the only one flying through rough skies. One year after its debacle, another privately-owned airline, Air Armenia, filed for bankruptcy as well - the carrier had entered the market in 2003, specializing in freight transportation and branching out to passengers’ flights in 2013, but was unable to compete with major airlines’ practises - like dumping, whereby a product, in this case air tickets, is cheaper in the foreign market than the price charged domestically.

Armenia features two international airports - Yerevan’s Zvartnots International which covers over 95% of the total passengers traffic, and Shirak International, serving Gyumri, the country’s second biggest city about 120 km from the capital. Both are operated by “Armenian International Airports” a company owned by the Argentinian-Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekian whose “Corporación América” operates 53 airports in Latin America and in Europe. Other airfields have either different destinations like Stepanavan’s (139km north of Yerevan) which serves the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia, or ended up falling into disuse at the fall of the Soviet Union, like Gavar’s, in central Armenia.

In 2012, Russia accounted for the sale of over 60% of all international air tickets, a USAID report showed. Two are also the Armenian passenger airlines in operation - Armenia, which flies to 17 destinations, and Taron Avia, which operates six destinations.