Armenian Helicopters CEO Arsen Manukyan believes that despite market challenges, there are still business opportunities for the company.
Company operations
The challenges in the region force the CEO to conduct business in a creative way. “Since the market in Armenia is very small, we have to find different types of services which we can provide to our customers. We have to build our services in accordance with the market demand. Companies abroad with a lot of tourist sites are less affected by the challenges we are facing. Those companies are able to conduct the same type of scenic flight on a daily basis because different clients visit every day.”
Therefore, Armenian Helicopters is
spreading its opportunities by focusing on more than its so-called “fixed-flight tours” or passenger transportation, Manukyan said. “Booking a charter flight is also among our customers’ options. We also conduct special operation flights. These include medical evacuations (medevac). We have contracts with the Armenian Medical Institute (AMI), the Erebuni Medical Center in Yerevan, and
70 Sept/Oct 2024
a relevant regulation with the Armenian government. For this assignment, we can equip the H125s as ambulance helicopters to carry out a transport with medical personnel during daytime.” To equip the helicopter for this mission, and to encourage the company to carry out the mission, Armenian Helicopters received a tax benefit from the Armenian government in April 2018.
“When we receive the phone call from the hospital, we can be airborne within 30 minutes,” Manukyan said. “We are not able to operate as helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). Being a HEMS operator is a very expensive service and at this moment Armenia is not ready for such service.”
Recently, special operation flights for Armenian Helicopters have also expanded to include helicopter skydiving. “We started from the summer of 2023 and became a drop zone of the United States Parachute Association (USPA),” Manukyan related. “Our Armenian
instructor is living in the United States and works at our location every summer to perform this task. Our strategy is to make helicopter skydiving a popular sport in Armenia. The third component of our special operation flights involve cargo-sling flights. Recently, our pilots completed their cargo-sling training and
we received documentation.”
The fourth and final subdivision of Armenian Helicopters’ special operation flights concerns heli-skiing. As knowledge,
skill and experience was
not available in Armenia, expertise was sourced from Switzerland. Within two years, staff was trained and certified for their new assignment. Together with the Swiss instructors, the company scouted for suitable mountains to drop skiers on. The heli-skiing operations, medical evacuations and cargo-slinging operations are being flown with Armenian Helicopters’ two H125s.
the appropriate
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
