METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE OF ZVARTNOTS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MAY BE SUSPENDED DUE TO ARMAVIA’S DEBTS
arminfo
Tuesday, November 6, 17:09
If Armavia, the national air carrier of Armenia, fails to pay off
its debts for meteorological services of its aircrafts, Zvartnots
Aero-Meteorological Center CJSC will be unable to make the payments
in line with the contractual obligations of the Armenia International
Airports (operator of Zvartnots Airport) and will be forced to stop the
meteorological service of the airport within the next few days, Pavel
Manukyan, Deputy Director, Acting Director of the Aero-Meteorological
Center, lawyer Anahit Grigoryan and Head of the Technical Service
Garnik Petrosyan said at today’s press conference.
Manukyan said that over the past few months Armavia’s debt to the
Aero-Meteorological Center (the sole shareholder is the Armenian
Ministry of Nature Protection) has risen from 48 mln AMD (nearly 120
thsd USD) in early 2012 to 93.87 mln AMD. In the meantime, the debt of
the Center (more than 70 employees) to Armenia International Airports
is 14.86 mln AMD. Nearly 60% of the Center’s profit, which is by 50-60%
connected with Armavia’s payments, is transferred to the state budget.
He added that the termination of the contract with Zvartnots’ operator
means disruption of the transmission of the aero-meteorological
information to the Armavia aircrafts departing and arriving
at Zvartnots Airport, and in case of failure of connection with
international aero-meteorological databases, the aircrafts of other
air companies will also fail to get the information. The technical
director said that according to ICAO rules, the aero-meteorological
information should be available for everybody.
Meanwhile, the rules of ICAO say that each country itself decides
which organization in its territory is responsible for provision
of the meteorological information, and Armavia has no alternative
in this sphere. Notwithstanding this, Armavia can draw information
about the weather conditions of Zvartnots Airport from international
databases, but the ICAO rules and international conventions say that
the air company must pay to the party providing the information to
the database.
Manukyan said that the Aero-Meteorological Center provided the
information about the flight situation for 33 thsd AMD per flight,
but Armavia enjoyed discounts as the national air carrier.
The lawyer of the Aero-Meteorological Center pointed out that the
organization applied to the court to make Armavia pay the debt, but
now the Center is going to file a claim against the air company. She
said that Armavia made no payments over the past two months, and
earlier the payments made up a very small part of the payment for
aero-meteorological services, whereas there was a schedule of payments.
No longer hoping for Armavia’s response, the head of the
Aero-Meteorological Center applied to Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan to take measures against Armavia. He pointed out that the
Center has nothing to do with Armavia’s bankruptcy processes, which
were allegedly initiated by the concessionaire of Zvartnots Airport.
Manukyan added that the General Department of Civil Aviation is aware
of the situation in the Aero-Meteorological Center but has no levers
of impact on Armavia.