Georgian aviation meets international safety regulations,
ICAO removes ‘red flag’ against Georgia

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has removed its ‘red flag’ against Georgia’s aviation industry after the country made changes to meet international safety regulations.

Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili explained the ICAO removed its ‘red flag’ for Georgia’s aviation sector after the country enacted changes resulted in Georgia now meeting "all international obligations”.

The ICAO red flagged Georgia last year after it uncovered significant safety concerns within the country’s aviation sector. Red flags are usually given to countries that do not comply with ICAO requirements regarding security.

In addition to Georgia, 12 other nations were red flagged by the ICAO at the same time – Angola, Botswana, Djibouti, Eritrea, Thailand, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malawi, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Uruguay.

Latest audit results by the ICAO showed Georgia had made significant improvements and now exceeded the 60 percent plan set by the organisation.

I would like to congratulate all employees of Georgian Civil Aviation Agency who worked very hard and today Georgia is not ‘red flagged’ anymore,” said Kumsishvili.

This means it will be more attractive to register new airline companies in our country [and] it also means that safety of every registered airline company is checked,” he said.

The Minister explained the first ICAO audit was done in June 2007, which showed Georgian aviation did not meet international safety standards. Another audit was completed in October 2013, which showed the situation had improved by 24 percent.

However Georgia’s aviation sector still faced problems regarding certification. This was negatively reflected in last year’s audit results and resulted in Georgia being ‘red flagged’.

Kumsishvili said Georgia had made vast improvements in all directions of the aviation sector and the audit results in April 2016 reflected this progress.

In general we have quite a good year in the aviation sector. In the first three months of 2016 the number of air travellers increased by 19 percent,” said Kumsishvili.

This summer 30 airline companies will fly to 27 different directions. New flights are being be added to Kutaisi. We have also started active works to develop domestic flights and regional aerodromes,” he said.

The ICAO will release its final report in 90 days.