It is assumed that on 30 July the Iranian airline ATA airlines will launch direct flights to Tehran.

 

In addition, the Georgian airline Airzena will also fly in this direction.

According to the CEO of the company Iase Zautashvili, at the first stage the company will operate two flights a week.

 

According to the  Head of the Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia Guram Jalagonia, the decision to resume flights was adopted on 22 July. The exact frequency of flights has not yet been established - it all depends on demand.

It should be noted that on 2 July the Iranian airline Mahan Air had to start flying from Tehran to Tbilisi, but the flight was canceled for reasons that the head of the Agency did not specify.

Mahmoud Davari , a founder of Iran-Georgia Business Development Centre,    expressed outrage because of  the cancellation of flights.

“Many different agreements were signed during the visit of the Minister of Economy of Georgia and his delegation to Iran. One of the agreements meant the starting of direct flights between Tehran and Tbilisi. Mahan Air is one of the leading air companies in Iran. Hence, it was agreed that Mahan Air would start flights. The first flight was scheduled for 2 July. However, the flight was later cancelled. The Georgian side explained their decision as being due to security problems which Mahan was facing. However, if the company had some security problems it would never have scheduled flights running to European countries. Georgia is losing Iranian investors as well as Iranian tourists, and we see no response emerging from the Government”, - said Davari.

 

Flights between Tehran and Tbilisi have been stopped for several months. Until October 2014 flights in this direction were carried out by Flyvist, however, due to the introduction of a visa regime with Iran, passenger traffic decreased so that the flights were stopped.

 

Georgia’s visa policy was declared one of the reasons why Mahan Air refused from entering the Georgian market.

 

Apparently, the decision to resume flights was taken after the government of Georgia eased visa regulation for Iran.

 

In addition, the Iranians can obtain an  electronic visa online.

Source:commersant.ge