Flyone Armenia launched the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flight today. The first plane with 65 passengers took off from Zvartnots airport tonight at 18:00, and the first Istanbul-Yerevan flight will land in the Armenian capital at 23:50.

Flyone Armenia Board Chairman Aram Ananyan told NEWS.am that about 30 percent of the tickets, priced between 39-70 euros, have been sold.

During a conversation with journalists, passengers were mostly satisfied with the resumption of flights, because over the past two years they had to fly to Istanbul via Moscow and Kyiv, or Georgia.

Many of the passengers were traders who imported and sold Turkish-made clothing in the Armenian market for many years. Some passengers were going to work or visit relatives living in Turkey, while others refused to say what the purpose of their visit was.

Mkrtich Sertimshek, an Armenian, was among the passengers. He is a Turkish citizen who visits Armenia for the 56th time and 4 times a year to take part in restoration works of various churches.

Yerevan-Istanbul flights were suspended in 2019. The resumption of flights is the first agreement reached between the two countries in the framework of the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

Flights are currently operated twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, and there are plans to add another one in the near future.