Three New Direct Flights from Russia to Georgia

The number of Russian tourists visiting Georgia has increased substantially. The Russian Federal Agency for Tourism announced that around 925,000 Russians visited Georgia last year. In the future, this figure is expected to rise further since, from May, Georgia will open direct flights from several Russian cities including Ekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg and Samara.

The three new flights will carry out routes to Batumi International Airport. The first flight from Ekaterinburg took place last Thursday. Direct flights from Samara will begin May 7 and from Saint Petersburg from May 16.

Regular direct flights between Russia and Georgia were canceled in 2006 following rising tensions between the two countries, to be rebuilt temporarily in 2008 but interrupted again after the August war that year due to a rupture of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Charter flights between Moscow and Tbilisi resumed in August 2010. However, the restoration of regular air service between Moscow and Tbilisi was only adopted on October 24, 2014. Today, four airlines offer flights between Georgia and Russia, from the Russian side – S7 Airlines, Aeroflot and Ural Airlines, and from the Georgian side – Georgian Airways.

Eka Karsaulidze