Tag Archives: aviation

Armenia wants to buy jets from Russia

FEB. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia wants to buy between two and four Sukhoi Superjet-100s from Russia over the next couple of years, media reported quoting Russian industry minister Denis Manturov. The Sukhoi Superjet-100 is a Russian-made and designed passenger aircraft. It was released in 2008. Sukhoi, which is state-owned, has struggled to sell the aircraft, though, except to Russia’s allies. The Sukhoi Superjet-100’s first commercial flight was between Yerevan and Moscow in 2011.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Tajikistan makes first flight to Uzbekistan in 25 years

FEB. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Somon Air flight made the first passenger flight between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for 25 years, highlighting the improved relations with neighbours that Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ordered his officials to develop since taking over the presidency in September. Mr Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov who died on Sept. 2 after ruling Uzbekistan for 25 years. Somon Air is a Tajik airline. According to reports there were 65 passengers on the first flight.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Qatar to increase flights to Azerbaijan

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference with his Qatari counterpart, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the Qatar airline had agreed to increase the number of flights to Baku. He said that the driving motivator of the planned flight increase was a jump in the number of tourists travelling to Azerbaijan. Mr Mammadyarov didn’t give any figures to back this up or say how many Qatar flights would now operate to Baku. International airlines have been increasing their flights to the South Caucasus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Flights to resume between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Armenia and Russia to set up new airline

JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia and Armenia are likely to set up a new airline to fly routes between Yerevan and Moscow, Vahan Martirosyan, Armenia’s communications and technology minister, was quoted as saying. Armenia has been without a national flag-carrier since 2013 when Armavia was declared bankrupt. The privately-owned Armenia, a low-cost airline, started flights last year to Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Tajikistan’s Somon Air flights to Russia to restart

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia agreed to lift restrictions on Tajikistan’s Somon Air flying to the Russian regions after talks in Dushanbe. The routes to Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Ufa and Orenburg by Somon Air are a vital part of the transport infrastructure that allows Tajik migrants to work seasonally across Russia and to send vital remittances home. The Somon Air flights had been banned since mid-December after a row between the two countries’ aviation divisions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Kazakhstan scraps helicopter manufacturing

ALMATY, JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering, a headline joint-venture set up in 2011 between Kazakhstan Engineering National Company and France’s Airbus Helicopters, has stopped manufacturing helicopters because of the economic slowdown, its CEO, Timur Tilinin, said in an interview with the pro-government Astana Times newspaper.

The company was licensed to manufacture the Eurocopter 145, a twin engine utility helicopter that can be used as passenger transport or for search and rescue missions. It can carry up to nine passengers and two crew.

Mr Tilinin said that Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering was the backbone of the Kazakh aviation industry and that it had manufactured 26 Eurocopter 145s since 2011, eight for the ministry of defence and 18 for the ministry of interior’s emergency service.

“Unfortunately, due to the (economic) crisis we halted the project,” he said. “In mid-2015, ECKE launched a transformation plan to move from pure manufacturing to, first, becoming the distributor of Airbus helicopters in all Central Asia and, second, performing maintenance of the aircraft. We do the maintenance of all the helicopters we have produced.”

Moving from manufacturing helicopters to being a distributor service centre will dent the prestige of the project. It also underlines just how heavily Kazakhstan has been hit by the economic downturn.

Government agencies, Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering’s only clients, have been hard hit.

Part of the distribution process involves reassembling helicopters which are manufactured in Germany and then dismantled for export.

Kazakhstan is striving to broaden out its industrial base away from oil and gas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Ukrainian airline to start flights to Georgia

JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — YanAir, a small Ukrainian airline, is planning on running flights from Odessa to Tbilisi and Batumi, media reported. The new routes highlight the increase in air traffic to the South Caucasus. Batumi is being developed as Georgia’s main tourist hub.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Gulf Air to fly to Georgian capital

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, said it will start up a three- times a week service to Tbilisi. The move is just the latest announcement from an international airline to connect with Tbilisi. In December Qatar said it would fly to Tbilisi four times per week. Passenger numbers at Tbilisi airport have increased by 50% from 2010. It is building a new arrivals terminal to deal with the larger passenger flow.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Armenian aviation numbers grow

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport reported passenger growth of 10.4% in 2016 compared to 2015, media reported. It said that just over 2.1m people had used Armenia’s main airport without giving a reason for the rise.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f