Flying to Armenia
 

It looks like I may need to travel to Yerevan in Armenia later this year.

My options for getting there (from the UK) appear to be

- flying BA, OS or OK at some unearthly hour (late evening departure/after midnight arrival on the way out, before-dawn departure on the way back)

- flying on the national airline, Armavia, with far more convenient timings

Does anyone have any experience of Armavia? I note they fly modern Western equipment (A320) as opposed to old Tupolevs, but somehow I still feel a bit uneasy about flying on carriers from that part of the world. (This may be completely unfounded prejudice...)

[This message has been edited by Aviatrix (edited Feb 20, 2004).]

Sibir, a privately owned domestic Russian carrier, bought 70% of Armenian Airlines, and renamed the operation Armavia. They put in cash to improve planes and service and so on. You will likely get service that resembles one of the private Russian carriers -- bad, but that bad.

Is scheduling convenience more important to you than service, safety, and "peace of mind?" I would pick the more reputable carrier no matter how inconvenient the schedule -- but everyone's personal preferences and tradeoffs are different.

BTW, safety has little to do with where an airplane was made. I would feel much safer on an Ilyushin maintained and flown by BA than on a Boeing maintained and flown by Armavia.

Aviatrix:

As Armavia don't fly from London (you have to go to Amsterdam or Frankfurt to get them) I would go for the nonstop BA/Brit Med flight from Heathrow. I presume this is a business trip and someone else is paying.

The BA times are not too bad. Going out from Heathrow in the afternoon, although you arrive at 00:15 there are 4 hours clock change so it will just seem like 20:15. And I am sure you will be met; everyone going to such places is. Coming home the BA flight is over lunchtime.

I wouldn't have any qualms however about the Soviet aicraft either. Extremely robust, and they just fly on and on. And the flight crews, rather than having come up the Cessna/flying the night mail route, are usually pretty high hours ex-Air Force flyers, especially those flying international - considered a real prestige job.

Thank you both for your replies.

pynchonesque - useful background information! Once upon a time it was "accepted wisdom" here in Europe that Eastern European airlines were to be avoided; these days carriers like Malev, LOT and Lithuanian Airlines are considered perfectly acceptable and I was rather hoping that perhaps someone might come up and say "I've flown Armavia many times and they are wonderful".

WHBM - flying from AMS wouldn't be a problem, it's what I usually do (starting my journey at NWI). In fact I've only used LHR four times in the last five years. Thanks for reminding me about the time difference - I hadn't really considered that aspect. Though, on the other hand, if 0015 is really 2015 then my 9 am meeting the next day will be at 5 am...

Will give it some more thought (and maybe wait for other feedback here!)

"Perfectly acceptable" perhaps for service during regular operations. But I evaluate an airline based on how I think they'd perform in a logistical or flight emergency. You can only put so many new clothes on a pig, or however the saying goes.

FWIW, Armenia is not yet rated by FAA/IASA.

If you end up on BA/OS, go for the BA flight (all things otherwise equal) - it's a lot more comfortable, especially given the awful schedules.

Also,

You might note that if you use an American Airlines award to travel on BA, it will only cost you 20,000 miles roundtrip to go from anywhere in Europe to Armenia. A great deal.

Not really to spook or anything, but reading the remarks of all 14 Hull-loss Incidents in Armenia its interesting to see that all of them are unbelievably different and almost made me chuckle (I particularly liked the 'nose first landing')