On 17 October, the Federal Air Transport Agency, also known as Rosaviatsiya, stated that Russian S7 Airlines is allowed to operate flights between Moscow and Kutaisi as soon as the sanctions are lifted, reported georgiatoday. According to the decree, the airline was given permission to operate the Moscow-Kutaisi route 7 times a week.
The Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava responded to the possibility of resuming flights between the two countries. “I cannot confirm the reports that direct flights have been restored between Georgia and Russia. The information was released citing the Russian media. It does not mean that direct flights have been restored. There are a number of formal procedures for this, and our Air Administration has not received any notification that flights have been restored. Therefore, I cannot confirm that this is a resumption of flights, but I am reiterating that we would welcome such a decision,” she said.
Earlier, on 10th October, Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs David Zalkaliani stated that direct flights with Russia should be resumed. “The development of tourism, humanitarian and people-to-people relations are beneficial both for Georgia and Russia and I think that the barrier should be removed,” he said. He also added that “none of Russian citizens” faced any problems in Georgia since the June 2019 protests (Caucasus Watch reported).
On 4 October, several Russian airline companies, including S7, Pobeda and Red Wings demanded that the Russian government compensate them for three months of losses from the suspension of flights to Georgia. They were valuing their lost profits at 1.3 billion rubles ($20 million). In response to the request, the spokesperson of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that “Moscow will resume flights to Georgia after it is clear that Tbilisi’s hostile policy against Russia is a thing of the past.” He also noted that the meeting between the Russian Foreign Minister Sregej Lavrov and Zalkaliani (Caucasus Watch reported) was the first positive signal in resuming the flights. “Now we just need to be patient and find the right moment for resuming flights,” he concluded.
