The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, blacklisted them in June 2020 after assessing the country’s “safety oversight capabilities.” The EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recommended the measure, citing what it described as Armenian authorities’ failure to ensure adequate licensing of domestic airlines.
The Armenian government pledged at the time to address the EASA concerns. Senior officials from its Civil Aviation Committee expressed confidence that the ban will be lifted by the end of 2022. The Armenian carriers remain, however, on the EU blacklist updated recently.
In a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the EASA said it provided “technical assistance” to the Civil Aviation Committee in 2022-2023 and continues to advise the government agency on how to improve inspections of airline safety standards. It gave no time frames for the possible lifting of the ban.
The deputy head of the committee, Stepan Payaslian, also could not say when Armenia will be removed from the blacklist. Yerevan has made “big progress” towards meeting the EU standards for aviation safety but still lacks certified inspectors enforcing them, he said.
“Our resources and inspectors are not enough to carry out the oversight function in full. It’s hard to find specialists,” added the official.
Vaner Harutiunian, the co-founder of passenger rights group Passenger.am, cast doubt on the EU’s official rationale for banning the Armenian airlines from its skies.
“A legitimate question arises: had Armenia previously enforced stronger safety measures towards Armenian airlines than it does now?” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“The EU blacklist doesn’t include an authoritarian, undemocratic country like Azerbaijan or Pakistan, which is considered a dangerous country by international organizations. So there are also political and economic factors at play here. We need to openly talk about them. I’m sure there are technical problems but they are not the kind of problems that Armenia could not overcome,” added Harutiunian.
Payaslian denied any political or economic motives behind the EU ban. “These are [aviation safety] problems accumulated over the years,” said the government official.
The ban did not prevent Armenia’s air traffic from reaching a new record high of 5.5 million passengers last year. Most of them were flown to and from the country by foreign airlines. The several local carries fly only to Russia, other ex-Soviet states and the Middle East.