Georgian Airways resumes flights to Moscow

Georgian Airways resumed flights to Moscow on Friday and said the company’s demands have been partly met after complaining about unfair competition in the market due to the recent Russia-Georgia contract about resuming direct flights.

The Tbilisi-based airline has reached an agreement with the Government that the airlines' demands will be assured step by step.

"If the process does not start we will continue strikes,” said the head of the Director Council of Georgian Airways Tamaz Gaiashvili.

On December 10, the company leadership cancelled flights and protested against the recent Russia-Georgia contract about resuming direct flights, which Georgian Airways believed gave an unfair advantage to Russian companies.

Meanwhile, the country’s top tourism agencies publically supported the Georgian Airways strike as airline officials threatened to "paralyse” Tbilisi International Airport if its demands were not met.

The airline approached the Government with seven demands, including to immediately abolish a note the country sent to Russia on July 8 where the Georgian side gave a green light to Russian companies to enter Georgia and launch regular flights between Tbilisi and Moscow.

Some of the other airlines’ demands were to separate Georgia’s Civil Aviation Agency (CAA) from the Ministry of Economy, to fire the CAA leadership team, who were employed by the previous government, and appoint qualified personnel as replacements.

Tbilisi-Moscow-Tbilisi flights resumed in autumn after lengthy negotiations between the two countries. Last year during a special meeting between special envoy of Georgian Prime Minister on Russian issues Zurab Abashidze and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin first discussed the issue.

Following the meeting the Russian inter-departmental commission responsible for authorising air carriers to operate international routes granted permission to several Russian airlines to resume flights between Moscow and Tbilisi.

Tbilisi-Moscow-Tbilisi direct flights were cut after Russia and Georgia clashed in the August 2008 war over Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia), a breakaway region of Georgia.

Since 2011, Airzena and Russia’s Sibir Airlines have carried out direct charter flights to various cities between the two countries, including Tbilisi and Batumi. However, the airlines’ required consent for each flight from relevant authorities before they could fly to their neighbour country, which complicated the process.