Armavia Airlines

[News Guru]

[textarea]Birmingham – Armenia flights take off

Birmingham has become only the second airport in the country to host flights to the former Soviet republic of Armenia, the Post reports. The new service was launched yesterday when an Airbus A319 of Armavia Airlines touched down having flown in from the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The airline will operate flights to Yerevan and on to Delhi every Tuesday, departing Birmingham at 06.55. It hopes to attract passengers wanting to reach both Armenia and India to visit friends and family. The flight will have eight business class seats and 126 economy seats.

Illarion Gharibyan, deputy director general at the airline said: ‘There are 20,000 people in the UK of Armenian descent and people can currently only access flights to Armenia from Heathrow so the Birmingham operation will provide more choice for those wanting to reach Yerevan.'

Paul Kehoe, the airport’s chief executive officer, told the newspaper: ‘Not only will Armavia Airlines offer people a brand new service to Armenia, it will provide another welcome connection to India, which will be of particular interest to the 200,000 people of Indian origin living in the Midlands.’

Round trip fares to Yerevan start from £325 excluding taxes and to Delhi are from £205. Flights can be booked via www.armavia.aero

Source[/textarea]

 

[Ray Finkle]

Armavia now bookable again once weekly Tuesday 25/08/12 with A320.

Better ATQ links this time as there's not a six day wait on the return leg.

Will it , won't it? :dunno:

 

[Ray Finkle]

Now saying three times weekly.

From their website.

2012-07-19
Discover UK with Armavia. Direct flight Yerevan –Birmingham starting on 25th July 2012.

Starting from 25th July 2012 Armavia launches direct regular flight Yerevan – Birmingham – Yerevan 3 times a week.

The flight makes good connections on the following directions:
- Birmingham – Yerevan – Amritsar
- Amritsar – Yerevan – Birmingham

 

[Ray Finkle]

Looks as if these are the flight times.

Yerevan – Birmingham eff 25JUL12
U8107 EVN0800 – 1025BHX 320 3
U8108 BHX1125 – 1920EVN 320 3

http://airlineroute.net/2012/07/20/u8-ammbhx-s12/

We'll see if it turns up on Wed.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Armavia flight U8 107 is showing on BHX arrivals for 10.25 tomorrow :search:

 

[Aviador]

Armavia flight U8 107 is showing on BHX arrivals for 10.25 tomorrow :search:

I've just been having a peep at their website. They are trying to get two long range aircraft for 2013 for further expansion and they intend to serve more European airports.

http://www.armavia.am/index/index/lang/en

 

[Ray Finkle]

Well it turned up, no idea of loads though. I hope they do well, if the pricing is right the BHX-ATQ market is there.

 

[Aviador]

I get the impression it's either a family or state owned airline but they seem ambitious but I guess most airlines are in their PR videos. Did anybody get to see it?

 

[Ray Finkle]

This one?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exjbKhRLU6Q[/video]

 

[Aviador]

It wasn't that one actually but I love the video you posted. I had no idea about anything to see in Armenian. It actually looks a really great place to visit. Kind of the new Prague. If they can keep it looking classy and don't go down the stag weekend trips it should do well.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I agree it surprised me when I first saw the video. I showed it to Mrs Finkle about a possible city break expecting her to turn her nose up but she said it looked great, as long as she doesn't have to parachute out of the plane

 

[TheLocalYokel]

as long as she doesn't have to parachute out of the plane

I thought that might put off afew people but if the Queen can do it at 86 then most people ought to have no problem.

At least it means missing the immigration and customs queues at the airport. I suppose your bags are thrown out after you.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Another 735 was used again today, as was last week. Not sure if this is to be regular now rather than the A320's.

 

[Ray Finkle]

No flight last week and nothing showing on arrivals for tomorrow. Another to add to the come and gone list?

 

[Aviador]

I don't understand how they can come and go so quickly. Surely a couple of flights is not enough time to know if the flights working or not?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Last time they only operated for a few weeks, this was apparently due to issues with the flights between Yereven and Amritsar. When they started again a couple of weeks ago they said it had all been sorted, maybe it hadn't :search:


It's no surprise though, BHX has a long list of airlines starting and then stopping links to ATQ. Off the top of my head (there's probably more I've forgotten) Air Slovakia, Akal Air, Air Sylhet, Poo Airlines (no typo) using a Flyjet 757, Comtel Air, Mahan Air, Aerosvit, Kyrgyzstan Airlines, Uzbekistan Airlines (in fairness to them they operated for many years and even did a couple flying through BHX to New York) and now Armavia. The only one who has lasted is Turkmenistan who have been on the route as long as I can remember, but their service is basic to say the least.

It's just a shame aviation in India is in such a state at the moment because there's definite potential there.

 

[Ray Finkle]

All flights now chopped until October 27th. Whether it will start again is anybodies guess, apparently the last flight took less than 10 people.

 

[Aviador]

All flights now chopped until October 27th. Whether it will start again is anybodies guess, apparently the last flight took less than 10 people.

With no advertising whatsoever it's hardly surprising only 10 passengers were using the last flight. October 27th doesn't seem a long enough lead in time to launch it properly but we'll see.

 

[Ray Finkle]

These flights can only be booked through specialist travel agents so I guess if they haven't linked up with them to get the flightd promoted then it's no surprise they got low numbers. I've heard Armavia are in quite bad financial trouble anyway so the route may not start again at all.

 

[Hassaan]

All flights now chopped until October 27th. Whether it will start again is anybodies guess, apparently the last flight took less than 10 people.

10 people? Oh dear...

I think with Air India on board, no one will be using that service even if they do start up properly. Why can't BHX work on attracting less 'odd-ball' airlines?