With the opening of tourism season, Yerevan- Batumi train opens its route for the second year, taking Armenian tourists to the resort on Georgia’s Black Sea.

The train called ‘Armenia’ will depart from Yerevan on alternating days, 10:00am, and it will arrive in Batumi at 4:30pm, Georgian time (18 hours later). The train consists of 12 carriages, has a capacity for 350 passengers and will serve until mid September.

Despite the existing air flight Yerevan-Batumi, the train trip attracts with cheaper prices, even though the trip takes nearly a day. The plane ticket costs 71,000 drams (about $193), and the length of the flight is 40 minutes, while price of a train ticket for a double sleeping compartment is 20,000 drams ($54).

On Wednesday Vahe Davtyan, spokesman for the ‘South Caucasus Railways’ CJSC (which is in charge of the Armenian Railways) said that so far 120 passengers have made reservations.

The train route was restored last year, after it was closed for 14 year. Davtyan says that officials are satisfied with the number of passengers that traveled on the route last year, however refused to provide the exact number of passengers. But he added that the first train of this year which left yesterday was full of passengers.

On Sunday (July 12) ‘Armavia’ Aviation Company also opened Yerevan-Batumi flight; the flights will be implemented till the end of the tourist season.

Nana Avetisova, press secretary of ‘Armavia,’ told ArmeniaNow that the train route and the plane flight are not competitive with each other.

“The person who can afford buying a plane ticket, will choose our flight. And train fans will choose the train,” Avetisova says.