Georgia’s national flag carrier, Georgian Airways, has filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Rights against the Ministry of Transport of Russia for the agency’s “unreasonable ban of flights to Georgia.” According to the CEO of the company, Roman Bokeria, the transport regulator of the Russian Federation justified the flying by claiming that Georgia owes $800,000 debt to Russian government agency.
Bokeria claims that no debt exists, the Georgian side make regular and prompt payments to Russian air agency. The head of Georgian Airways lamented that the list of reasons for flight ban includes a clause on “low security requirements.”
“We have been working in the airline market for 27 years and during this time no country has ever blamed us for its security problems. Although we fly to almost all European countries and work with major airlines,” Bokeria said.
According to Bokeria, the Russian government only ordered that Russian airlines halt flights to Georgia, but the Ministry of Transport forced all airlines operating in the Russian Federation to stop flying to Georgia. Because of this, the Georgian side suffered heavy financial losses.
