- Fly Arna positions itself as a low-cost company. There are certain stereotypes about low-cost companies, like claims that high quality service should not be expected from them. How do you respond to such claims?

- Fly Arna, Armenia’s national airline, follows the successful low-cost business model of Air Arabia Group. Low cost doesn’t mean low quality, and Fly Arna presents itself to the public as a low-cost airline, offering comfort and reliability and value-added services at a low price. In Fly Arna’s case such claim does not correspond to reality, as we give our passengers the opportunity to choose their comfort with affordable prices.

Let me present in more details how the low-cost airline works and at what expense it manages to offer a low-cost flight.

Airlines operating with a low-cost business model manage to offer affordable airfares by reducing the operating costs, which does not necessarily mean a less comfortable or less reliable flight experience.

In the low-cost business model, various factors contribute to the formation of air tickets with a competitive price, among which is the operation of flights on short hauls and driving higher fleet utilization. As a result, the airline can implement a larger number of flights per day, therefore, to serve more passengers than the airlines working with the traditional model. Another important feature of this model is that these airlines usually offer only economy class seats, which also significantly reduces the operating costs. Other features include direct, non-stop flights and the operation of only one single type of aircraft (Airbus A320), which means that the cockpit crew and the cabin crew need to be trained to operate only one type of aircraft.

All these factors contribute to the reduction of the airline’s costs, and as a result, the airline provides low-cost airline tickets.

- When a customer buys a ticket, how can he/she be sure that all his/her desired services are included in the price?

- When booking a flight on our website, the customers have an opportunity to choose a ticket in 3 categories: standard, flexible and premium. Each of them clearly states what is included in the ticket of the given category. And when buying air tickets through travel agents, I would recommend to additionally clarify which class air ticket has been booked, so that expectations can be formed correctly before the flight.

- Tell us about the specifics of Fly Arna’s business model.

- Although we offer only economy class service, we stand out from other airlines due to provision of additional services to our passengers.

The seats of our aircraft are very comfortable compared to economy class seats: as the fleet configuration that Fly Arna operates includes 174 seats with 81 cm distance between them which allows a generous legroom for passengers to place their legs comfortably during the flight.

The aircraft is also equipped with SkyTime, a free inflight entertainment streaming service, which only offered by few airlines. Thanks to this, our passengers can stream a wide selection of free movies, TV programs, music and audio books (including Armenian) during the flight.

We also have AirRewards, a loyalty program that allows to accumulate points from each flight and use them to buy tickets, in-flight meal or pay for baggage. We consider it the most generous loyalty program in the region, as it offers 10% cashback to our passengers.

Onboard our flights, we also offer SkyCafe, a wide range of delicacies varying from light snacks, sandwiches and salads at affordable prices.

As I have already mentioned, we offer passengers the opportunity to choose their comfort. We have air tickets of different categories for people with different priorities: standard tickets for passengers who do not need additional services, flexible and premium tickets for all those who want additional comfort during their flight, such as pre-ordered meal, additional baggage, free change or cancellation of the flight. At the same time, even in the case of a standard air ticket, we include 10 kg of hand baggage in order to create additional comfort for travelers. If we sum it up in one sentence, the passenger chooses the comfort of his/her trip against the price he/she can afford.

- What are the advantages of being a member of the Air Arabia “family”?

- Being part of one of the most successful group of companies in the world has many advantages, but I will list only a few of them: proven and successful business model, localization of the best know-how of the aviation sector, introduction of international experience, training of the staff by international specialists aimed at the development of their skills.