Zvartnots International Airport is located near Zvartnots, 12 km west of Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. It acts as the main international airport of Armenia and is Yerevan's main international transport hub. It is the busiest airport in the nation. The airport was built in 1961. An open architectural design competition was held in 1970. The first prize was awarded to a design team that included architects M. Khachikyan, A. Tarkhanyan, S. Qalashyan, L. Cherkezyan, and structural engineer Baghdasaryan. Later the project was implemented with modifications to the original design with participation of designers H. Tigranyan, Arthur Meschian. The airport was renovated in the 1980s with the development of a new terminal area, in order to meet domestic traffic demands within the Soviet Union. When Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the growth of cargo shipments resulted in the construction of a new cargo terminal in 1998.
Terminal 1
Terminal 1 was built in 1971 and closed in 2011. Beside it the airport has Terminal 2 with 2 buildings and a VIP terminal. Terminal 1 is the circular terminal. The parking garage used to be located underneath the bridge serving the Departures floor, and has 250 car spaces. The Arrivals hall was on the lowest floor, was dark and rather narrow, leading to the relocation of the Arrivals hall to the new Terminal 2 building in 2006. When the Terminal 2 Departures area was opened, its additional gates were connected to Terminal 1 by a bridge. There was a total of 21 check-in desks, 9 gates, of which 3 were equipped with jetways (15 gates from 2006 to 2011, for a total of 8 jetways), 2 baggage carousels. Since its closure in 2011, the terminal is abandoned, and is not maintained anymore. Cracks in the concrete of the tower have appeared since then.