From July 3, Italy and Tbilisi will be connected with direct flight, as the Italy-based Alitalia will begin operations. According to Giovanni Simonini, General Manager of Alitalia in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus, the target segment is cultural groups and business people.

Alitalia will perform flights twice a week from Tbilisi on Tuesday and Sunday, while the flights from Rome to Tbilisi are scheduled on Monday and Saturday. The flights will take place by Airbus A320 aircraft configured with two classes of service: business class on the international routes and economy class accordingly. In addition, Georgian passengers will have chance to use this flight as a transit point.

Simonini described Georgia as an “increasing market” when he spoke at the press conference on June 12 in Tbilisi and noted that “if the economic situation will be maintained or even it will be increased, we promise to add additional flights.”

According to Simonini, the selling of tickets is underway and “the first flights are almost fully sold.”

According to Alitalia management, new flights between Italy and Georgia are “a response” to the increased demand of air transportation between the two countries and the fast development of the countries’ economic and cultural links.

Federica Favi, Ambassador of Italian Republic to Georgia hailed the Alitalia decision saying that “the dream” is coming true. “One of the biggest problems between the two countries was no direct flights between Tbilisi and Rome, [and this problem] is now solved,” Favi said.

Favi overviewed the history of the two countries cooperation and pointed out that the trade turnover increased by 63.3%, while the number of visas issued for Georgian nationals reached 8,000 last year.

Alitalia, including flights operated by its subsidiary Air One Smart Carrier, serves 86 destinations - 27 domestic and 59 international in 40 countries. In 2010, the company carried 22 million passengers worldwide, while the number of passengers reached 25 million in 2011. Alitalia was nominated as Europe’s most punctual airline in 2010, and as one of the world’s five most punctual airlines in 2011.

Source:www.georgiatoday.ge