Georgia resumes flights to Russia after 7-year break

Georgian Airways is breaking a seven-year stalemate with Russia and starting to perform direct flights to Russia.

The Georgian airline will soon carry out flights to seven Russian cities while Russian airlines will fly to Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi, announced Georgia’s Economy Ministry.

The seven cities where the flights will be carried out from Georgia are Moscow, St Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Rostov and Mineralnye Vody (Minvody).

Meanwhile, Georgian Airways officially requested the Russian side to launch direct Tbilisi-St Petersburg and Tbilisi-Samara flights.

From this, after a seven-year break Georgian Airways performed a Tbilisi-St Petersburg flight on April 10, which was viewed as a significant step towards revising mutual ties.

The flight had only three passengers on board during the outgoing Tbilisi flight, while the plane carried comparatively more passengers back from St Petersburg to Tbilisi.

This flight was carried out with a one-time permit from the Russian side and it was not known yet whether or not regular flights would resume on this route.

Georgian Airways, previously known as Airzena, performed regular Tbilisi-St Petersburg flights until 2008, when Russia and Georgia clashed in a war and afterwards Tbilisi cut all diplomatic ties with Moscow.

In 2009, Georgian Airways, allowed by the Russian side, launched Tbilisi– Moscow charter flights, while in 2011 airlines of Russia also operated charter flights to Tbilisi. Since October 2014, Russia's Aeroflot and Transaero resumed their flights to Georgia.

Meanwhile, Georgia's Economy Ministry claimed the number of travellers between Georgia and Russia increased by 49 percent from November 2014 to February 2015.