First time visitors to Armenia, especially foreigners, remain targets for unscrupulous taxicab companies and “independent cabbies” that service Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport.

Nicholas arrived in Yerevan from Cyprus on September 13. He took a taxi from Zvartnots Airport to reach his hotel on Nalbandian Street.

The cabbie first told him the fare would be1,500 AMD. After leaving the airport, the driver told Nicholas he’d have to pay 3,500 AMD.  Upon reaching the hotel, the driver demanded 11,500 drams, and showed him an electronic receipt to that effect.  We should point out that the distance from the airport to Nalbandian Street isn’t 4.5 kilometers, as shown on the receipt, but thirteen kilometers according to Google maps.

Nicholas did not have small bills with him and forked over 15,000 drams to the driver. The cabbie said that he had no change and returned 2,000 drams to Nicholas. Thus, getting from the airport to the hotel cost Nicholas 13,000 drams (US$34).

Yesterday, Nicholas checked with the Yandex taxi app for a quote about a taxi ride to Gyumri. The quoted fare was almost the same as getting from the airport to his hotel.

The name of the taxi service appearing on the e-receipt shown is Yandex Taxi Aero. The telephone number on the receipt is a fake. It doesn’t exist. Hetq couldn’t find any information about Yandex Taxi Aero on the internet.

We contacted Yandex Taxi to see if the company is affiliated with Yandex Taxi Aero. There’s no affiliation. A Yandex Taxi employee told us the company uses the Yandex Go service to ferry passengers to and from the airport. (The official Yandex fare from Zvartnots to Avan, far from the city center, is 2,000 AMD.)

Hetq also contacted Zvartnots Airport’s public relations department to see if the airport, operated by Argentine businessman Eduardo Eurnekian’s Armenian International Airports CJSC, monitors the cabs and other vehicles picking up and discharging passengers.

We were told the airport, surprisingly, has no oversight on the matter.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, at a June 22 cabinet session, declared that only taxi services meeting certain standards should operate at the airport.

This isn’t the first time the government has promised to crack down on illegal taxi services at Zvartnots Airport.

In November 2021, Pashinyan’s government announced plans to regulate taxi service at the country’s airports by issuing new licenses to all vehicle operators   providing such service.

For years, people arriving in Armenia by air have complained that hiring a taxi at Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport is a headache given the bewildering number of private operators, some unlicensed, they face upon exiting the airport.