Georgian Airways: Direct Charter Flights in Moscow Planned in January

Georgian Airways said that Tbilisi-Moscow direct charter flights will be conducted from January 6 to January 25, instead of the initially planned New Year days.

“Since the information about permission [from Russia] came at 7pm [on December 28], we cannot conduct charter flights during the New Year days,” Nino Giorgobiani, a spokesperson for the Georgian Airways said.

In a statement issued on December 29 the Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the Georgian side for a failure to conduct charter flights this month.

Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that based on “humanitarian nature” of the issue, Moscow agreed to resume charter flights and asked the Georgian aviation authorities to specify technical information “as soon as possible,” although received the response with a five-day delay.    

He also said that Tbilisi’s “bureaucratic tricks” made it impossible to conduct flights duly, “which were so much expected by the people in Russia and in Georgia. As it seems, just it was the goal of official Tbilisi.”

Meanwhile, Interfax news agency reported that the Russian Transport Ministry gave its consent to conduct charter flights on December 29 and December 30.

Georgian Airways said on December 22 it had requested the Russian aviation authorities to allow the Georgian air carrier to resume Tbilisi-Moscow direct flights starting from January 5. Georgian Airways, formerly Airzena, also requested for daily charter flights to the Russian capital from December 26 to January 15.

Russia cut direct air flights with Georgia in October, 2006, following spy row between the two countries. The flights were restored for several months in 2008 and cut again after the August war.

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