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July 2007 By Hayk Rachidian Hello Armenia! Here I am tired from long flight from US, finally landed in Yerevan airport. Well, Armenia changed a lot in the past 4 years. The Airport terminal is new and it is civilized now. You are lucky if your flight is the only one to pass the customs and immigration control. In my case I was not so lucky and two more flights from Russia have arrived at the same time. If it is just one flight from Austria or London is ok, people are more or less organized and keep the line to pass immigration control, but when few flights from Russia mix then the chaos starts. Entry and exit processes are organizes and painless, may except the luggage mess that always there. For some reason when there are too many bags or two flights combined together, the Airport personnel usually pile up all bags in the floor and it is quite hard to find bags and dig them out of the mountains of luggage. The new terminal building is nice, but I still could not understand why force all people to pass trough the duty-free shops. The biggest issue is the arrival area, it is still too crowded and space is not enough. They should separate Russian routs from other international, because Russian flights are still not so organized. Another annoyance is the taxi drivers, when exiting the luggage area you get immediately attacked by the army of taxi drivers. I wonder why taxi drivers are waiting in restricted arrival area. I had to give a credit to cab drivers in Armenia, they are doing a great job, but they should have dedicated space and not hang out in arrival area. The old airport building is quite complicated and it is not that easy to get around or understand where to go to. I could not find information desk and had to ask local police where to find things. The best way to get to the city is to hire a taxicab, for about $10 in 15 minutes you will be in downtown Yerevan. The Armenian Government greatly improved arrival and departure procedures as well as cracked down on bribery among the passenger customs officials, but unfortunately Cargo and Parcel Customs still the most corrupt organizations in Armenia. Well, it is always a sad moment to depart from Armenia, but the good thing is that departure experience is the pleasant one. It is streamlined and very easy: pay departure tax, which is increased because of humiliating dollar exchange rate, around $30, check in your luggage, pass friendly customs and that is it. I remember before, in mid nineties, departure was a real torture. Customs would literally hold you off until you paid some bribe. The departure procedures improved a lot and made traveling to Armenia easy. When you depart do not forget to buy some great Ararat factory cognac from the duty free store, the prices are little cheaper than in the city. Our reviews are based on personal experience and reflect our point of view. This story is updated in 2007, interesting to see how arrival experience will turn out next time.
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