Georgia launches flights to Europe for Russians, bypassing sanctions: what is known

Georgia Airways, Georgia's flagship carrier, launches transit flights for Russians through Tbilisi to Europe. They will be operated to five cities - Milan, Paris, Vienna, Larnaca and Thessaloniki.

This statement was made by the founder of Georgian Airways Tamaz Gayashvili. About this writes RTVI.

"We'll start on June 15. We'll see how it goes. But we think there will be enough demand on these routes. Because of Tbilisi it will be more convenient and faster than on other routes," Gaiaashvili said.

He added that Georgian Airways forecasts that passenger traffic between the terrorist country Russia and Georgia will gradually recover. "Of course, we will keep the air traffic with Russia. Nothing will happen with that. The Georgian government has very warmly welcomed this decision. God grant that it will never be interrupted again", Gaiaashvili said.

Earlier Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili had announced a boycott of Georgian Airways, which had launched flights to Russia, and called on Georgian citizens to join her. She recalled that Russia had occupied 20 percent of the country.

This was stated by Zurabishvili at a briefing, writes "Ekho Kavkaza". The airlines declared the President persona non grata on their aircraft and demanded an "apology to the Georgian people.

The European Union and the U.S. threatened Georgia with sanctions for ties with Russia

The U.S. State Department has been considering the possibility of applying sanctions against Georgia over the resumption of direct flights with Russia. This information was voiced by Matthew Miller, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, at a briefing.

He recalled that many countries, including the U.S., prohibit Russian planes from entering their airspace. "We are concerned about the resumption of direct flights between Russia and Georgia. This could lead to the threat of sanctions to Georgian airlines and airports," Miller noted.

For its part, the European Union called on Georgian authorities to adhere to the sanctions against the Russian aviation industry, which were imposed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said this at a briefing in Brussels.

"The EU urges Georgia, which is seeking to become a candidate for accession to the union, to follow the current European sanctions, as other EU partners do. And we emphasize the need to closely monitor any attempts to circumvent sanctions, especially in the aviation sector," Stano said.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, this week Supernova Airlines, which is part of the Nova Poshta group of companies, performed its first flight on the route Riga - Rzeszow - Riga. So the plane delivered 7 tons of international parcels of the company's clients from the international airport of Riga (Latvia) to Rzeszow (Poland).

Only verified information onour Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber . Do not be fooled by fakes!