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Large-scale construction under way at Gyumri’s Shirak Airport

Large-scale construction is under way at Gyumri’s Shirak Airport. A new arrival hall is being built, complete renovation and repair of the runway is in process.

The old arrival hall of “Shirak” Airport, covering 400 sq. meters, did not comply with the standards, causing problems for passengers.

An expanding arrival hall will cover 870 sq. meters, where there will be 8 new Passport Control Service booths, luggage conveyor belt, so that previous inconveniences for passengers will disappear.

The new arrival hall will have enough capacity to serve 1 flight per hour and in case of necessity it will be possible to expand up to 3 times in future.

The actual capacity of “Shirak” Airport is 250,000 passengers per year and will reach up to 700, 000 passengers. The new arrival hall is expected to be operational in September.

In the meantime, construction works on complete renovation of the runway are in progress. The works started on July 15 of this year and they are expected to be completed before September 1.It should be noted that although the average lifetime of the paved runway is 10 years, the necessity of renovation at “Shirak” Airport appeared 14 years later (last time it was renovated in 2007), which proves a high quality of the previous work done.

After 14 years of operation, there were many and multiple cracks and damages on the runway and based on the actual condition of the runway, there was a need to implement renovation works.

The total investment made in “Shirak” Airport is about $ 7.5 million, about $ 1.5 million of which was invested in the construction of the arrival hall, and $ 6 million – in the construction of the runway. The investments were made by “Armenia” International Airports” CJSC.

There are other forward-looking projects related to the development of “Shirak” Airport, which need to be discussed with the Government.

The Airport “Shirak” of Gyumri has been operating since 1961 and with its indices, it is the second in the Republic of Armenia. The airport is located 5 km far from Gyumri and 120 km far from Yerevan. The length of the runway is 3220m and the width is 45m. In 2007 General Department of Civil Aviation at the Government of the Republic of Armenia has granted “Shirak” Airport the status of ICAO First Class Airport.

The airport was and is considered to be a joint base for RA Civil Aviation and RA Ministry of Defense Air Force aircrafts and helicopters.

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