Epress.am News from Armenia
VTB Bank (Armenia), through its corporate business development strategy, has allocated a loan of $20 million US to Armavia airlines.
VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO Valeriy Ovsyannikov, Mika group of companies and Armavia owner (who also owns the Mika group of companies) Mikhail Baghdasarov signed the necessary documents today.
Baghdasarov, however, denied reports that some of these funds will be used to repay Armavia’s debt to Zvartnots International Airport and to retrieve one of its impounded planes held in Paris.
“Our debt to Zvartnots is not so much that we must repay it: 4–8 million a month. All regular airports are given the amount the following month. Am I clear? Or else we’ll say something else,” he said to the journalist of local business newspaper Capital.
The Armavia owner then asked journalists, who disseminated reports of the company’s impounded aircraft? “If the airplane is being renovated, it’s not impounded. Secondly, you want to present everything such that in Armavia, everything is bad. Say it again, that I am selling that, which the company has already purchased. It’s a trend, which is untrue.”
To the same journalist’s question whether Baghdasarov is preparing to sell the company, the Armavia owner said, “No, I’m not. And to an intelligent man your smile conveys the opposite. I want to say that you should listen to the owner and not to rumors. I have said it 20 times, I’m not selling Armavia and 20 times they [try to] prove to me that I’m selling it. You know better than me? Then tell me who I’m selling it to.”
“With regard to the current debt, that is the fantasy of the media and not only the media. I want to tell you, there’s no problem except for one, that which you artificially create [make up],” he told the Capital journalist.
Baghdasarov also addressed the airlines’ decision to delay all flights by an hour, which “confirms that they are silent and took the brunt [of high prices] themselves.”
“But after, our patience snapped, because of those high prices our flights were being delayed, [but] today we delayed the flights to get the public’s attention that in our airport the prices are higher than in other countries.”
According to Armavia press spokesperson Nana Avetisova, “Zvartnots’ airport services are three times more expensive than Moscow airports and on average two times more expensive than in Europe (1.5 times more expensive than Paris airports; 2.5 times more than in Rome).”
As previously reported, Armenia International Airports press spokesperson Gevorg Abrahamyan yesterday accused Armavia of unpaid taxes. For this reason, the Yerevan-Moscow flight was delayed. Later, a Zvartnots representative said air service was restored, while negotiations with the airline for settling its debt were underway.