Will planes go from Yerevan to the border zone with Azerbaijan? Opinion
Trial flight Yerevan-Kapan
The Armenian government intends to organize regular passenger flights between Yerevan and Kapan, a city in the Syunik region, on the border with Azerbaijan, as announced by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, Gnel Sanosyan, after a trial flight. According to him, the flight was carried out only on the territory of Armenia, so “issues related to security would not arise.”
But experts warn of possible dangers, saying that Azerbaijani military positions are located just a few meters from the Syunik airport in the city of Kapan.
“Historic Flight”
The flight was only announced on the day of, April 26. The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures reported that the flight would be operated by a Czech-made aircraft L-410-UVP E20.
Later, the Civil Aviation Committee reported that this passenger aircraft was designed for nineteen passengers and was registered in Armenia:
“This flight is truly historic as no flights have been operated to Kapan Airport since the ’90s, apart from one private flight in 2017.”
Kapan Airport has been renovated in accordance with international standards and was certified in 2020.
“The goal is regular flights”
Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan said that during the test flight, the pilots tested everything that was “included in paper schemes.”
He announced that the flight was for the purpose of
- test flight, runway,
- to test landing and takeoff patterns at the Kapan airport.
“There was a period of time when communication with the aircraft was lost, the radars could not read it for about two minutes. These are technical issues, and this is what we wanted to understand in order to correctly set up navigation equipment,” he said.
According to him, in addition to the pilots, there were other specialists on the plane who recorded all the problems and shortcomings during the flight:
“We are still analyzing the flight, it is possible that we will need to organize another test flight. The goal is to organize regular flights.”
Sanosyan did not specify the t. imelineHe stated that it was too early to talk about ticket prices, but said “they are trying to make them affordable for everyone.”
A comment
Pilot Hakob Jagaryan recalls that at one time flights from Yerevan were made not only to Kapan, Goris, Sisian, but also other cities in Armenia. In the last years of the existence of the USSR, the construction of an airport began in Meghri, in the Syunik region. But since the ’90s, the situation in civil aviation in Armenia has changed for the worse.
Jagaryan says that he does not have high hopes for the Yerevan-Kapan flight. He warns that that Syunik Airport is in a “rather dangerous border situation”:
“Directly near the airport, at a distance of several meters, the Azerbaijani military is already standing. The airport is located in a rather difficult place. If it is possible to land at the airport both from the side of Kovsakan and from the side of the city, Kapan, then flights can be made exclusively towards Kovsakan, that is, in the direction of Zangelan, which after the 2020 Karabakh war came under the control of Azerbaijan.”
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Trial flight Yerevan-Kapan
