Economy Minister: airline founder claims on Gov’t preventing company from launching flights to US “speculation”

Levan Davitashvili, the First Vice Prime Minister and Economy Minister of Georgia, on Wednesday rejected claims by Giorgi Kodua, the founder of Air Georgia, who said the Government had prevented the airline from launching direct flights to the United States, as “speculation”.

The Minister’s comments came after Kodua said on Tuesday he had been in a meeting “months ago” at the Ministry of Economy, with the involvement of “several employees” from the US Embassy, where he alleged the Georgian side had expressed its “readiness” for launching flights to the country, but asked him to refrain from organising theese flights when the meeting was over.

• Deputy Economy Minister denies allegations Gov’t prevented Air Georgia from launching flights to US

Today, the company does not have any airline that is licensed to fly to the US or any other destination. Additionally, the owner of the company’s board requested to have the contract cancelled. Without a aircraft and an airline, can you imagine that the company may have the right to operate?”, Davitashvili said.

The Minister also claimed Kodua had lost the licence to operate with other airlines he worked in due to “failures to fulfil obligations”.

Davitashvili added the Government was “having frequent conversations with American partners” to further encourage economic relations, including through “connectivity and cooperation in transport and launch of direct flights”.