Armenia has addressed almost all the remarks for removal from the EU aviation blacklist

Armenia has addressed 40 out of 41 regulatory non-compliances that led to the republic's air carriers being included in the European Union's air safety blacklist. This was stated on November 4 in Yerevan by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the country, Gnel Sanosyan, during parliamentary hearings on the state budget.

The head of the department explained that the only remaining unresolved issue is the shortage of certified aviation inspectors and flight safety oversight specialists. Currently, the relevant staff are undergoing professional training, which is expected to be fully completed by mid-December of this year.

Part of the deficit has already been filled, and several more specialists are at the training stage, which is expected to be completed in mid-December. I very much hope that we have resolved the problems, also taking into account the audit conducted this year by ICAO. The results of this inspection showed that we managed to eliminate numerous shortcomings.

The European Commission placed all airlines certified by the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia on the blacklist in June 2020 due to serious concerns regarding flight safety oversight. As a result, carriers lost the ability to operate direct commercial flights into European Union airspace under their own licenses.

In October, the Armenian authorities officially appealed to the relevant European structures to begin the process of lifting the restrictions. A technical videoconference of the parties is scheduled for November 13 to approve a roadmap, after which European specialists will visit Armenia to assess the situation on the ground.