The first airline in Georgia has announced the date of the resumption of flights to Russia

The decree on the restoration of direct flights between RUSSIA and Georgia after a four-year break was signed by Putin on May 10. The Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia reported that

Georgian airline Georgian Airways will resume flights to Russia from May 20. Flights from Tbilisi will fly to Moscow seven times a week, the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency reported on FACEBOOK (owned by Meta - a company recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

“Georgian Airways is starting regular operations on the Tbilisi- Moscow  -Tbilisi route. According to the airline's request sent to the Civil Aviation Agency, flights will be operated seven times a week from May 20, ”the agency said in a statement.

Earlier on May 16, the Russian airline Azimuth also announced the resumption of flights on the Moscow-Tbilisi route. The first flight is scheduled for May 19.

The press service of the Ministry of Transport announced the opening of direct flights between Russia and Georgia after a four-year break. “Russian airlines will carry out seven direct flights from Moscow to Tbilisi and back every week,” the ministry said in a statement. This happened on May 10, after the corresponding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin . He also abolished the visa regime for Georgian citizens.

Air communication with Georgia was interrupted by the Russian side four years ago, in August 2019. The reason was the protests in Tbilisi that took place after Sergei Gavrilov, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, sat in the speaker's chair during the opening of a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy in the Georgian Parliament.

The day before, the HEAD of the Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia, Givi Davitashvili, said that a total of five airlines, including Georgian Airways, had submitted applications for flights. The remaining applications will be considered against the "most stringent" requirements for compliance with international sanctions. “None of the airlines that fell under the sanctions on the black list of European countries, not a single aircraft whose support has been terminated by the manufacturer, will fly to Georgia,” Davitashvili stressed.

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The decision to resume flights was criticized in the EU and the US . And Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who performs mostly representative functions, called it a "provocation" and considered it unacceptable due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine .

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, on the contrary, supported Moscow's decision: “We have a million ethnic Georgians in Russia, our compatriots. They have family members, relatives, acquaintances here, and it is very important to facilitate their movement.” The Ministry of Economy of the republic estimated the profit from the resumption of air communication with Russia at $300-400 million a year.