Ukrainian International Airlines drastically reduces ticket prices for Armenian passengers

The management of the Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) company has agreed to reduce ticket prices for Armenian passengers.

“After intense talks with UIA we have reached a mutually beneficial agreement whereby the prices for air tickets for UIA passengers traveling to and from Armenia will be reduced. Moreover, the price reduction will apply to flights in all directions. The issue has finally been settled!” the Armenian envoy to Ukraine Andranik Manukyan reported.

It takes less time to travel from Armenia to any European country via Kiev than other transit areas. However, up until now airline tickets have been rather expensive.

Experts stated earlier that this prevented Armenian citizens from travelling to other countries and from familiarising themselves with European culture, as well as hindered the sustainable development of tourism in Armenia.

“High ticket prices impede the development of tourism. When making their choice, tourists take prices into account, which doesn’t play to our country’s advantage,” said Vahagn Vardumyan, the head of the Transcaucasian Alley NGO.

According to Narine Mkrtchyan, the chairperson of the National Press Club, Armenia’s pursued ‘open skies’ policy is now ‘deeply clouded’ because of the arbitrariness of the air ticket market, due to which people cannot afford to fly abroad.

Armenian citizens prefer to travel to other countries from neighboring Georgia where air tickets are cheaper. The Armenian Ministry of Economy explains the difference in the two neighboring countries’ ticket prices as follows:

“Georgia switched to the ‘open skies’ policy earlier than Armenia did. It’s therefore quite natural that the results in Georgia are more obvious.”

There hasn’t been any reports on how much the ticket prices will drop. Earlier, the Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) offered tickets to Paris starting from AMD 196 000 (USD 404) and to Amsterdam from AMD 215 000 (USD 444).