Russia restricts Tbilisi-Moscow flights of Georgian Airways
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Georgian Airways could not perform its scheduled flight to the Russian capital of Moscow today as the Russian Transport Ministry has suspended its flights.
Four out of 21 flights per week have been suspended between Tbilisi and Moscow including weekends.
General Director of Georgian Airways Givi Davitashvili said the air company did not receive any preliminary notice.
General Director of Georgian Airways Givi Davitashvili released a special statement over the issue. Photo from Georgian Airways
Davitashvili said this will bring serious financial problems to his company as up to 2,000 sold or reserved tickets have been cancelled.
Citing Russia’s Transport Ministry, Russian media says this is a response to the restriction set by Georgia on the Russian owned Ural Airlines on performing flights from Moscow’s Zhukov Airport to Tbilisi.A seven-year stalemate between Georgia and Russia broke down in September 2015 when Georgian Airways started performing direct flights to Russia.
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.
After a seven-year break Georgian Airways performed a Tbilisi-Saint Petersburg flight yesterday.
Georgian Airways is continuing to protest the recent Russia-Georgia contract about resuming direct flights between the two countries but it announced it would not suspend flights to other destinations.
Airzena protested against the recent Russia-Georgia contract about resuming direct flights, which Georgian Airways believed gave an unfair advantage to Russian companies.
A disagreement between TAV Georgia, the sole operator of Tbilisi and Batumi International Airports and local airline company Georgian Airways continues.
A Georgian Airways plane carrying 180 people from Tbilisi to Vienna made an emergency landing at Tbilisi International Airport on September 5.