Internet websites, local and foreign mass media urgently reported this news on July 13. However, at noon the same day, people working at Armenian airline companies in Armenia had no clue as to what was going on. I called “187”-the airport service center-to find out what’s going to happen to the flights going to Beirut. The operator, who didn’t know what had happened, assured me that the “Zvartnots” airport was going to have a flight taking off for Beirut on July 13.
“But the airport is closed,” I asked the operator astonished.
Her answer was even more shocking than the first:
“We don’t care about that. If we say there’s a flight, then there’s a flight.”
The telephone got disconnected. The Civil Aviation Service didn’t know anything about that even at 2:00 p.m.
‘Try to find out from “Armavia”. They’re the ones preparing the flights, not us,” said the Civil Aviation Service.
I didn’t get an answer from “Armavia” the same day either, but they promised to find out and then tell me.
On July 14, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development hosted a conference at the “Armenia-Marriot” hotel, during which the speakers were only going to talk about providing “Zvartnots” airport with 30 million dollars. I hoped that I would find someone there who knew something about what’s going on in Beirut. That someone was head of the Civil Aviation Service of Armenia Artyom Movsisyan. First, he was amazed to hear that the “Zvartnots” airport had a flight for Beirut that day. Mr. Movsisyan called a representative to find out what was going to happen with the Beirut flights while I was there.
“The flight scheduled for 11:00 p.m. on July 13 was postponed. It was changed to July 14 at 3:00 p.m. But that may also be postponed,” said A. Movsisyan. It’s obvious that there was no flight.
I found out from “Armavia” that all Beirut flights had been postponed temporarily (“Armavia” has two flights to Beirut a week).
“We’re waiting for a message from Beirut. If we don’t solve this issue in a couple of days, then the flights to Beirut will go through Damascus and Haleb,” said “Armavia”.
Question: how are Armenian citizens going to enter a country’s border when they don’t have that right?
“We can’t respond to that now. First, we must have the flights. If Armenian citizens face any problems, then we will talk,” said “Armavia”.
The civil office of “Armavia” is ready to take back the tickets to Beirut. The office workers told me that some passengers had already returned their tickets.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be necessary to write about all of this if it wasn’t for one “but”. It turns out that Armenia has problems with getting information in a time when there are information technologies. Do Armenians know what’s going on in the world? You really don’t have to know about the relations between Lebanon and Israel, or the U.S. and Iraq. However, Armenians are supposed to know about world events, especially when it concerns Armenia. It’s not about this or that airport being closed-today it’s Beirut, tomorrow it’s another country. The point is that workers are irresponsible Of course, a perfumery worker isn’t supposed to know whether or not the airport is closed, or what time the plane took off, or whether it’s postponed…But the airport worker must know and must be held accountable for the information provided. It has been proven that in most cases, misinformation and indifference are reasons for human tragedies.
Now the reader might say that that it’s not a big thing…
Small things lead to big ones. Recently, someone who had taken the “Armavia” plane to Moscow goes to the airport to return to Yerevan according to the hour stated on the ticket. At the airport, the passenger finds out that the plane will arrive six hours late. The “Armavia” representative doesn’t even inform the passengers. The passenger goes on the town just to “kill” time until the plane arrives. The time comes for the plane to arrive and the passenger decides to call the airport to know whether the plane will arrive on time. The operator on the phone says:
“There will be no Yerevan-Moscow flight today at “Armavia”.
What happened? Who can you believe? To go the airport, or not to go…One of the local Armenians finds the telephone number of an “Armavia” representative by the name of Karen. He calls and asks. Karen says:
“Hurry up, registration has already begun…”
Can you imagine what would happen if he hadn’t found Karen’s number?