MosJan Posted December 5, 2007 Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 Airport to put into operation in Karabakh in 2008 03.12.2007 17:51 GMT+04:00 http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_print.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_mail.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_rus.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_arm.gif /PanARMENIAN.Net/ An airport will be put into operation in Nagorno Karabakh in 2008, NKR President Bako Sahakian said. Initially, the planes will fly from Yerevan to Stepanakert and vise versa. “Life in the republic will obviously activate,” he noted. The Stepanakert airport hasn’t functioned for over 20 years. Presently, Armenian specialists carry out essential investigations, IA regnum reports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpa Posted December 5, 2007 Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 Airport to put into operation in Karabakh in 2008 03.12.2007 17:51 GMT+04:00 http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_print.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_mail.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_rus.gif http://panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_arm.gif /PanARMENIAN.Net/ An airport will be put into operation in Nagorno Karabakh in 2008, NKR President Bako Sahakian said. Initially, the planes will fly from Yerevan to Stepanakert and vise versa. “Life in the republic will obviously activate,” he noted. The Stepanakert airport hasn’t functioned for over 20 years. Presently, Armenian specialists carry out essential investigations, IA regnum reports. Good news MosJan. Thank you When I saw this story yesterday I had mixed feelings about it. No doubt that it is good news. Not only it will cut Yerevan -Stepanakert travel time to under an hour, it will also open it to direct international air traffic, if not say, from London but at east from places like Tehran, Beirut and Aleppo, specially for those who those traveling to Stepanakert/Artsakh on special/business missions. This will be a boon to Artsakh’s economy. On the flip side, such project will bypass and delay the development of places between Yerevan an Stepanakert. The approximate direct distance between Y and S is about 200km/120mi, equal to the distance between LA and SanDiego. How long a drive is this? Last year it took us about 4 hours, however most of the delay was due to bumper to bumper traffic at places reducing our speed to 20MPH. Were it not for that it should have been less than 2 hours. In 1998 it took us about 8 hours from Y to S. The best part of the drive was on the new highway between Goris to Stepanakert. At that time the drive between Yerevan and Goris was the worst as most of the highway was in such poor shape, when at times there was no pavement on the roads. As mentioned above a direct flight between Y and S may be a blessing for those traveling for business purposes, be they politicians or business people. It will not benefit the average tourist, be they native or foreign. I doubt if the average Yerevanite even knows where Vardenis is, just as the average Vardenistsi knows where Yerevan is. Map; http://www.armsite.com/maps/ Another view. What will happen to places like Sssian and Goris if there were a direct highway between Y and S? Those who want to see the latter places , including Jermuk will take the indirect route and those who want to see the southern coast of Sevan will take the more direct route. A land highway is so much different from a sky highway. A land highway, with comfort stops and signs to historical landmarks will traverse through so many interesting landscape, with stops at every few miles, and in the process promote tourism and commerce, not to mention that it will also give the local/ merchants and farmers a fast and easy access to international metropolises like Yerevan. Armenia is only 200 km/120 mi at the widest and about 300 km/210 mi at the north south distance. I could not believe my ears when I met this highly educated 40 something lady, a native of Vanadzor, a mere 100km/60mi from Yerevan, who had never been in Yerevan before. In conclusion. Certainly, a direct flight from Y to S is something to rejoice, but not to forget that it will also delay building modern highways thereby denying all the in between natives decent roads. Are we not jumping from the 12th century directly to the 21st, and in the process forgetting all those caught in between? Most tourist and travel agents have itineraries to take one to Ejmiatsin, Geghard, Garni and places only under 20 miles, none of them advertise trips to Lori, Amasia, Goris or Meghri as the roads to those places were made 500 years ago and never repaired. Shall we forget all those who still travel on oxcarts and cars and give everyone an airplane? PS. Ed, how did you travel from Yerevan to Jermuk, and how long that 100 km journey take? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghos Posted December 5, 2007 Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 I like the news but I am not sure that this will be that much important.There use to be helicopters flying Yerevan-Stepanakert, but apparently it´s become more difficult.Does the Giyumri airport get much traffic? Why would Stepanakert? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud EXPAT Posted December 5, 2007 Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 Very cool news but as usual Arpa has some good points. In any case I'm sure it'll be the best scenic flight. Vayotz Dzor, Syunik and into Artsakh, definitely very beautiful parts of Armenia. Some people come to Armenia and don't really have time to travel to typical far off tourist spots such as Noravanq and Jermuk but still want to see Artsakh. This will definitely be perfect for them. Also for people whom have seen those places but not Artsakh. That damn airport in Jermuk should be fixed up as well. I know of a lot of people that come to Armenia just to spend most of their time in Jermuk. Gyumri airport really only serves Russian flights, though after the recent construction and new runway, I think any other flights coming in from abroad that can't land in Yerevan due to bad weather can just fly into Gyumri. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MosJan Posted December 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 Gyumri airport just got a "face lift" - so it's ok as for Artsax / Stepanakert airport - it's good that it will work, i'm looking forwerd to it i just hope i don't need to flay a KuKuRuzNik http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/production/po2.jpg in 2004 i asked if we can flay to Artsax - i was told that the only way is to charter a chopper for the whole day, cost over $2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazarian Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 During the war, before Lachin was liberated, the only way the supplies were sent to Stepanakert was with planes. At first, the Azeris would fire on the planes from Khojalu. Once Khojalu was taken care of, they started firing from Aghdam. Now Aghdam is not a threat but their weaponry is far more sophisticated and can be deployed from higher distances. The biggest tragedy with the air link was when the Azeris shot down a civilian yak-40 and all the passengers and crew perished. I think it was in 1991. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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