Taron-Avia prepares to take-off in Armenian market

Taron-Avia prepares to take-off in Armenian market –

Routesonline – A start-up carrier hopes to succeed where others have failed and establish a sustainable aviation business in Armenia. Taron-Avia, named after a canton of the Turuberan province of the historic Greater Armenia, aims to begin scheduled passenger flights to Russia this autumn and not suffer the same fate as former national entities such as Armavia and Armenian Airlines.

Although the carrier has almost ten years experience in the cargo business, this will be its first growth into scheduled passenger operations. It intends to launch operations from September 2015 using a small fleet of three Boeing 737-500s that have already been acquired and are currently undergoing pre-service maintenance in Jordan.

“We will be based in Yerevan,” confirmed the airline’s chief executive officer, Garnik Papikyan, in a recent interview. “From the Armenian capital, we mainly want to fly to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov, Krasnodar, Adler/Sochi, Volgograd, Voronezh and others,” he told ATO news in the interview.

According to OAG Schedules Analyser, Russian airlines dominate the market between Armenia and Russia with majors Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Transaero Airlines, Ural Airlines and UTair, plus smaller carriers such as Airline Tajmyr, Grozny Avia and Saratov Airlines also currently serving the market.