News - The Armenian Airlines license has been reinstated.

The Civil Aviation Committee has restored the operation of Armenian Airlines’ Air Operator Certificate (AOC). We learn this from the CAC’s website. This is the document without which no airline can conduct commercial operations. Recall that the CAC had suspended Armenian Airlines’ AOC for six months on May 6 of this year. The government-approved procedure for issuing an AOC states that in order to obtain the certificate or maintain its validity, the operator must be the owner of at least one airworthy aircraft or a lessee (sub-lessee), or must have signed a letter of intent to acquire, lease, or sublease at least one airworthy aircraft. Since Armenian Airlines did not have such an aircraft since this spring, the CAC suspended its certificate for six months. Moreover, this AOC remains in force until October 2040. The six-month suspension period had expired on November 6, but the CAC’s website still shows the airline as suspended. Under the aforementioned regulation, the AOC can be resumed by an order of the committee chairman once the air operator has completely eliminated the grounds for suspension, and the operator must inform the committee in writing no later than ten working days before the end of the suspension period. The Civil Aviation Committee later learned that before November 6 the carrier had applied to the CAC with the relevant documents to lift the suspension, which were being studied by the committee at the time of our publication. Prior to that, we had written that the airline had leased a new aircraft — a Boeing 737-800. It is this lease that helped Armenian Airlines to lift the suspension. Nevertheless, the aircraft has not yet been registered in the Armenian Aircraft Registry. According to aviation registries, it has not yet been moved to Armenia and remains in Istanbul. In the photograph: Armenian Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 in Istanbul (still with the VP-CTK registration), credit: Safer Chaily, planespotters.net