The first Yerevan-Stepanakert flight will be experimental and is likely to take place next week, this was reported to “First Armenian News and Analysis” by the head of civil aviation department of NKR government Dmitri Abdashyan. He said the concrete day of the flight is not announced because of technical matters and weather conditions. The technical flight will check the air navigation, connection system, proficiency of staff, the state of the racetrack etc. Only after experimental flights, the regular flights can be carried out.
The department of civil aviation of NKR has vested the Stepanakert airport to receive and send airplanes. To the question whether they don’t need the permission of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for flight execution, D. Abdashyan answered that the authorized body is NKR civil aviation department.
D. Abdashyan denied the news that Yerevan-Stepanakert flights will be carried out by Air Artsakh. “It’s old news. There is no such company. It’s not time to say what company will carry out the flights. There are technical issues to be solved”- he said.
Referring to the threats from Azerbaijan, Abdashyan noted that their point of view is not taken into consideration.
Abdashyan disagreed with the news spread that the place of airport is such that flying from Stepanakert to Yerevan the plane enters Azerbaijani air territory. “It depends what we understand by saying Azerbaijani territory, because they think that Karabakh is theirs. Our point is that freed districts belong to Karabakh. We don’t enter their territory.”- said Abdashyan noting that suspensions of flight are accounted for by technical reasons.
