On 8 November, Sakaeronavigatsia Ltd of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and Armenian Joint Stock Company ARMATS started running free air routes between Georgia and Armenia, reported agenda.ge.

The Free route airspace (FRA) is a specified volume of airspace in which users may freely plan a route between a defined entry and exit point. It is a way of overcoming the aviation sector’s efficiency, capacity and environmental problems by helping reduce fuel consumption and emissions, while improving flight efficiency. FRA has been successfully implemented in much of northern, south-east and central south-east Europe, as well as in Portugal - the first country to introduce full free route airspace in 2009. It is planned to implement free air routes across Europe by 2022.

The project envisages the possibility of using free routes by Georgian and Armenian airspace pilots only indicating the point of entry and exit, which will be marked as the Free Airspace Routes in the South Caucasus Area (FRASC).

General Director of Sakaeronavigatsia, Gocha Mezvrishvili Ltd stated that 75% of Europe has been already using free airspace routes. “I am happy that we are the first to introduce free air routes in the Transcaucasian region. We already have started to implement the second phase of this concept. We allow airlines to cross Georgia and Armenia on one route to choose the shortest route while saving time and fuel,” he said. “This is a rather difficult mission, and I am glad that our team successfully coped with this global challenge,” he added.

Both countries joined the initiative of the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation in 2017.