Air Armenia didn’t transfer money to Russian side for technical reasons

Air Armenia airline cannot transfer money to the Russian side for technical reasons, the airline’s Executive Director Armen Avetisyan told Aysor.am.

“Russia’s State Corporation for Organization of Air Traffic has accounts in SMP Bank. About a month or 6 weeks ago we made payments of $300,000 , which did not reach the recipient. We were told that U.S. and European sanctions were imposed on Russian SMP Bank. We then agreed to pay in rubles. We twice made payment in rubles, but learned that the bank’s accounts have been frozen for any currency,” Avetisyan explained.

According to him, the airline has no financial problems. ‘We wait for them to open an account in another bank so as settle those pecuniary affairs,” Avetisyan said, adding the payment deadline is September 21.

In response to the remark that the Russian media presented the situation a bit differently, A. Avetisyan said that perhaps someone tries to harm the airline’s image and they succeeded in doing it.

“Passengers have begun to panic. They avoid buying tickets for flights scheduled after September 21, but we try to convince them that there are no problems,” Avetisyan said.

Russia’s State Corporation for Organization of Air Traffic in the RF issued a statement today that from September 21, 2014 Russia stops providing air navigation services to Air Armenia in its airspace.