The foggy weather of last November and December, which caused problems for departures and arrivals at the “Zvartnots” airport made the Armenian government consider building another airport in Armenia. The government decided to provide funding for reconstructing the “Shirak” airport in Gyumri. True, according to the agreement with the “Zvartnots” administration, “Shirak” is only allowed to have flights going to and coming back from the CIS countries, but the airplanes have the opportunity to land in Gyumri in case of poor weather conditions. That’s impossible for the time being because the “Shirak” airport still isn’t functioning.
With the purpose of improving the conditions of the airport and the high-class airplanes, the Chief Civil Aviation department is currently implementing a project aimed towards the reconstruction of terminals, stations, etc, as well as the updating of the technical equipment. Nine months have passed since the government’s decision, but the project hasn’t started yet.
As informed by the civil aviation department, the first stage includes taking pictures of the entire area of the airport and the geodesy of the nearby areas, geological research of the area and budget plan. This is all going to be done by the Russian “Lenaero Project” institute. According to the civil aviation department, the abovementioned (which the government has provided 675,000 AMD for, while the entire project costs 4-4.5 million dollars) will end on September 30. What we don’t know is when the project will terminate and which organizations are going to implement the project.