Russia will resume air communication with Georgia. What is important to know

After a four-year break, RUSSIA has decided to resume flights with Georgia. But not all carriers will be able to resume flights - only those who did not fall under sanctions.When and how can transportation resume - RBC figured it out

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lifting the ban on Russian airlines flying to Georgia from May 15, 2023. The Foreign Ministry also announced that it was canceling the recommendation to Russians to refrain from traveling to Georgia.

By another decree, Putin also canceled the visa regime for Georgian citizens from mid-May - now they will be able to come to Russia without visas for up to 90 days. The visa regime with Georgia has been in effect since 2000, in 2012 Tbilisi unilaterally canceled visas for Russians - Russian citizens can visit Georgia without visas and stay in the republic for up to one year.

Why did direct flights stop?

Almost four years ago, in July 2019, Moscowsuspended direct flights to Georgia due to anti-Russian protests in that country. The reason was an incident during the opening of a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy in the Parliament of Georgia: a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Sergey Gavrilov sat in the speaker's chair. The opposition Georgian parties - the United National Movement and European Georgia - then considered that a deputy from a country that is considered to have occupied Georgian Abkhazia and South Ossetia and with which Tbilisi has no diplomatic relations, cannot be in the Georgian parliament, and even more so sit in the chairman's seat. The protesters demanded the resignation of Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze and the holding of snap parliamentary elections. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas during the protest. More than 200 people were injured in the riots.

How did the Georgian authorities react?

The resumption of air traffic and the abolition of the visa regime for Georgian citizens is unacceptable due to Russia's military special operation in Ukraine , Salome Zurabishvili said. “Another Russian provocation! The resumption of direct flights and the abolition of the visa regime with Georgia are unacceptable as long as Russia continues its aggression against Ukraine and occupies our territory,” she said.

Zurabishvili called for a meeting of the Georgian Security Council and the introduction of a three-month visa regime for Russian citizens. But Georgia has a parliamentary form of government, and the powers of the president are very limited, the main decisions are made by the government , which is approved by the parliament. Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said in February that Tbilisi would positively accept Russia's decision to resume flights between the countries. Foreign Minister Ilya Darchiashvili on May 10 also welcomed the abolition of visas: "This decision, seen precisely through a humanitarian prism, is welcomed by any responsible authority."

The fact that direct flights may be resumed was first mentioned by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in January 2023. “I am glad that our contacts with Georgia are actively developing. In 2022, Georgia's GDP grew by 10%. Largely due to tourism and trade relations with the Russian Federation. I hope that we will soon be able to resume direct flights as well,” he announced. According to him, it is respected how "a small country and its government have the courage to say that they will be guided by their own interests, the interests of their economy," and do not impose sanctions against Russia. The HEAD of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, former Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, in a conversation with RBC, called the resumption of air traffic "a gesture of goodwill on the part of our leadership."

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However, the country's Deputy Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili warned that Georgia would allow flights by Russian airlines, but only those carriers that are not under Western sanctions. “We clearly state our position that not a single airline that fell under sanctions will operate in Georgia. At this stage, Georgia has not issued any permission, as it has not yet received notification from either the airlines or the state,” she said. In April 2022, the EU imposed sanctions on 20 major Russian airlines, including Aeroflot, Pobeda, Rossiya, S7, Ural Airlines, Utair, Nordstar, Nord Wind, Aurora and ALROSA. In August 2022 usaannounced 25 Airbus A320, A321 and A330 aircraft operating as EXPORT control violators, which operate S7, Ural Airlines, Red Wings, Yamal, Nord Wind and iFly.

The European Union, of which Georgia wants to become a member, called on Tbilisi to join the sanctions instead of resuming communication with Russia. European Commission representative Peter Stano said this in an interview with the Georgian edition of Netgazeti. RBC sent a request to the European Commission.

Who will fly to Georgia

After lifting restrictions on flights between Russia and Georgia, Russian airlines will fly from Moscow to Tbilisi and back seven times a week, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Transport reported. “Currently, carriers are preparing for the resumption of flights. Russian airlines will carry out seven direct flights weekly from Moscow to Tbilisi and back. Flights will be carried out on aircraft of domestic production,” the Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

It is premature to talk about the resumption of direct flights in the near future - so far there are more questions than answers, a source in one of the Russian airlines told RBC. “I would like to see a clear position of the Georgian aviation authorities, expressed in documents, and not in the statements of officials. It is necessary to clearly understand what will be the criteria for Russian airlines and how often the Georgian side will allow flights,” he added.

Before the cessation of direct flights, Georgia was one of the most popular tourist destinations for Russians, and now, with limited opportunities for holidays abroad, the potential for direct flights to this country is quite high, notes Alla Yurova, NRA junior DIRECTOR of corporate ratings . In the summer of 2019, Aeroflot alone flew to Tbilisi 14 times a week, other Russian carriers also had flights to this country, but the Ministry of Transport still talks about only seven flights a week, so if flights are resumed, the profit of Russian carriers in this direction will not will recover to its previous level, she warns.

In 2019, the Russian authorities promised to compensate airlines for losses due to the suspension of flights to Georgia. Then the carriers estimated them at 3.2 billion rubles. But this amount was never paid.

RBC sent inquiries to the press service of the Ministry of Transport and major Russian airlines, including Aeroflot, S7, Pobeda, Rossiya, Ural Airlines and Utair.

How popular is Georgia among Russians

Until 2019, when the flight ban and the CORONAVIRUS pandemic did not interfere with travel to Georgia, this country was one of the mass destinations for Russians. In 2018, Russian citizens, according to the FSB border service, made 1.29 million trips to Georgia (all purposes of the visit were taken into account, including private, business, tourist, as well as border crossing by vehicle service personnel). The country was in ninth place among the foreign destinations that Russians traveled to that year . For comparison: Russians made 4.5 million trips to Abkhazia, which was in first place in 2018.

The majority of Russians traditionally prefer to travel to Georgia by car: in 2018, about 60% of Russians visiting Georgia used vehicles to cross the border (773.6 thousand trips), air passengers accounted for 39.6%. After the introduction of the flight ban, the flow of people traveling to Georgia, according to the FSB, fell very slightly in 2019 - by 5.5% (1.22 million trips were recorded). In 2022, 873.4 thousand Russians visited the republic, of which the vast majority (827.5 thousand) came for private purposes, while statistics recorded only 563 trips for tourism purposes.

Georgian statistics, which take into account the visits of foreigners, paint a different picture. In 2018, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Russians made 1.4 million trips to the country and were in second place in the number of visits by foreigners after Azerbaijani citizens. At the same time, in 2019, after the introduction of restrictions on flights, the flow of Russians to Georgia did not decrease, but increased by 4.8%: at the end of the year, the Georgian authorities recorded almost 1.5 million visits by Russians. According to the National Statistics Service, 1.09 million Russian citizens arrived in the country in 2022 — against the backdrop of the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine in February 2022, as well as the announcement of partial mobilization, Georgia became one of the main destinations for those who decided to leave the country . Most of them did not stay in Georgia, but the Russians took first place in terms of the number of those who moved to the republic: last year, 180,000 migrants arrived there, of which 62,300 were Russian citizens. The Ministry of Justice of Georgia also reported that since the beginning of that year, foreigners have bought 15,000 apartments in the republic, of which more than 6,000 have been purchased by Russians. During the first quarter of this year, Russian citizens bought 2.1 thousand apartments out of 5159 sold to foreigners.

The influx of people from Russia affected the country's economy. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund predicted Georgia's GDP growth in 2022 at 5.9%. In January 2023, the Georgian National Statistics Service estimated the country's economic growth at 10.1%.

In turn, Georgian citizens usually come to Russia either for private purposes, or as personnel serving vehicles, follows from the statistics of the FSB border service. In 2018, it recorded about 123 thousand visits of Georgian citizens to Russia and about the same number in 2019 - about 120 thousand. In 2022, Georgian citizens visited Russia 72.9 thousand times.

How the resumption of flights will affect tourism

Russian tour operators noted their interest in traveling to Georgia even in the absence of direct flights. Georgia is a year-round holiday destination, “sea in summer, mountains in winter,” Anna Filatovskaya, a representative of the Russian Express tour operator, said earlier. According to her, in the summer of 2022, the demand for a beach holiday in Georgia was relatively stable - tourists booked hotels with tour operators, and flew mainly through MINSK .

In the context of the pandemic, and then the sanctions, the number of foreign holiday destinations available to Russian tourists turned out to be limited. If direct flights to Georgia appear, and the Russian authorities lift the recommendation to refrain from selling tours and trips to the country, “tour operators will gladly take advantage of this opportunity,” the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) noted in January 2023. If the Georgian authorities “do not delay making decisions”, then carriers will be able to receive permission to operate flights between Moscow and Tbilisi by the end of the month, the association said on May 10. But experts interviewed by ATOR Vestnik recall that Russian airlines are experiencing a shortage of fleets for flights abroad: in order to open flights to Georgia, these aircraft will have to be removed from other routes for which the summer schedule has already been formed.

In addition, ATOR notes that in 2023 Georgia can no longer be such a budget destination for Russian tourists as it was before 2019, when tourists could simply fly to Tbilisi for the weekend: tickets for direct flights at first may not cost too much cheap. Now Georgia, despite the lack of direct flights, is already in the top 20 countries in terms of popularity among those who have issued air tickets for spring and summer, says a representative of the Tutu.ru travel service. According to him, at the moment, the average check for a round-trip ticket from Russia to Georgia is at the level of 50.6 thousand rubles. - 18% more than a year ago. Travelers flying to Georgia most often use Yerevan (41.4%), Minsk (29.4%) and Baku (25.7%) for transfers. “If direct flights are launched, we can expect

Tez Tour "in connection with recent events" has available current tours to Georgia, RBC was told in the press service of the tour operator. But the company's flight program "is still in the process of analysis and formation," and ground handling is still being offered to tourists. Prices for a beach holiday in hotels in the Adjara region (resorts of Batumi, Gonio, Kvariati, Kobuleti, Chakvi) start from 11.7 thousand rubles. for a week, the representative of Tez Tour notes, adding that a vacation in the region due to the mild climate and beautiful beaches can become "a worthy alternative to many countries."

The tour operator Pegas Touristik also has an interest in the formation of package tours to Georgia, said Anna Podgornaya, director of the company. “As soon as the airlines start selling air tickets, we will offer package tours to Georgia,” says a representative of the tour operator FUN&SUN. Until now, companies, in accordance with the presidential decree, have not formed tours to Georgia for the Russian market, but FUN & SUN offered them for the markets of the CIS countries where the tour operator is represented, so the start of sales is a technical issue, the company adds.

The flow of tourists between Russia and Georgia will depend on how quickly and in what quantity direct flights appear, RBC was told in the press service of the Intourist tour operator. If the issue of transportation "works out well", then Georgia will become the most popular outbound destination for Russian tourists among the post-Soviet countries, the company suggested.

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