According to Armenia’s state border guard service, the small airport first came under cross-border fire on August 18 less than 24 hours after a plane carrying Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian landed there. It said gunshots fired from Azerbaijani army positions overlooking the facility damaged the airports roof and one of the windows.
Another shooting incident was reported on August 19 just minutes after a plane carrying other Armenian officials touched down on the runway. Local officials accused Azerbaijan of trying to disrupt the first post-Soviet flight service between Yerevan and Kapan launched by the NovAir airline on August 21.
Later in August, the Armenian government notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) about the shootings and asked the 193-nation body to help prevent a repeat of such incidents. The local airport was reportedly again hit and damaged by gunfire on September 1. But no further shooting incidents were reported in the following months.
Sanosian told reporters that the twice-weekly service has continued since then and will be maintained next year. He said the government has purchased more sophisticated navigation and meteorological equipment for the Kapan airport that will minimize flight disruptions caused by bad weather.
NovAir uses small L-410 aircraft capable of carrying up to 17 passengers. According to Sanosian, the private airline has carried out 22 flights since August, transporting a total of just 189 passengers to and from Kapan. The minister acknowledged that the lingering security risk discourages many people from taking the 50-minute flights.
“Most of the time, the flights are not sold out,” he said. “We understand the reason for that but will not stop the flights.”
Kapan is the administrative center of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province sandwiched between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Baku has for years demanded an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan passing through Syunik, which is also the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. Yerevan rejects those demands.
Azerbaijan’s recent recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that it could also invade Syunik to try to open the so-called “Zangezur corridor.” Iran as well as Western powers have warned Baku against doing that.
Tehran opened a consulate in Kapan in 2022. Russia and France are expected to follow suit in 2024.