The FINANCIAL — According to Nino Giorgobiani, PR Manager of Georgian Airways, Georgia’s national carrier, the company served in total 161 000 passengers in 2007. Georgian Airways carried 130 952 passengers on direct and 20 321 on transit flights. The leader in direct flights is Kiev with 28 524 passengers.
In the same period, National Airlines served 46 050 passengers in total. “90% of passengers were on direct flights and 10% on transit flights,” Nutsa Ubilava, manager of International Relations of National Airlines, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Giorgobiani, after Kiev, Tel-Aviv was the second most demanded direction in 2007 with 20 073 passengers carried. Georgian Airways’ traffic in Amsterdam was 19 189 travellers. In Frankfurt – 16 831, in Minsk – 13 413, in Paris – 12 300, in Athens – 11 419, in Dubai – 7 918, in Vienna – 7 791, and in Batumi – 483 travellers.
“In 2006 our company carried 162 000 passengers and in 2007 161 000. This difference between numbers is because of the closed border issue with Russia. It covered 31% of our conveyance and it was a dead loss for our company but the balance was shared with dynamism to other directions. So, the passengers we carried to Moscow now fly to this destination with transit flights via Kiev and Minsk. We will restore the Moscow route as soon as the border with Russia opens,” said Giorgobiani.
From April direct flights to Moscow will be re-opened, Prime-Minister Lado Gurgenidze declared On February 21 in the popular political talk-show Prime-time.
Because of the great demand of passengers Georgian Airways have everyday flights to Kiev. The company launched additional frequency on the route Tbilisi – Minsk – Tbilisi.
From January 27 flights have been operating on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
“In 2008 we are going to open a new flight to Baku, Azerbaijan; this will be a new frequency our company takes. We think this route will be as demanded as Kiev and Minsk. The price of a ticket will start from EUR 75, excluding taxes,” Giorgobiani told The FINANCIAL.
Nowadays, Azal (the Airline of Azerbaijan) occupies the Baku route with daily flights.
“Georgian Airways have negotiations with Boeing to buy a new aircraft, which will supposedly last 10-15 years of use. This will be a 737 700 Boeing type, twin engine jet airliner,” she added.
As Nutsa Ubilava stated, during 2007 Georgian National Airlines carried 35 606 passengers to Ukraine and 10 458 to Kazakhstan.
“The company’s most important achievement in 2007 is becoming leader in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan areas and opening new directions,” Ubilava said.
“By the new year 2008 we plan to double our number of aircrafts and make our list of destinations even more diverse than it is now,” she added.
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