MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Akaki Saghirashvili delivered a report at the Plenary Session of the Global Aviation Summit 2019 - Connecting the World. The Summit was held in Mumbai, India, until January 16.

“The transport sector, including the civil aviation, is one of the strategic directions of the country's economic development. The aviation sector is one of the largest employer creating jobs in air transport as well as the relevant neighboring areas. Georgia follows the liberal political course in terms of civilian aviation, which is positively reflected at the sector annually,” – the Deputy Minister stated in his speech.

Deputy Minister underlined the fact that the recent trends in tourist flow in Georgia and the introduction of new airlines at the Georgian air market largely contributed to the growth of the flow at the international airports of Georgia. Namely, in 2018, the number of passengers transferred by the international airports of Georgia equaled to 5,0 million passenger, which is by 24% higher number compared to the same indicator of 2017.

“Georgia is actively working on reflecting in the national legislation the regulations and directives stipulated by the Agreement on Unified Airspace between Georgia and the EU and its Member States. This also implies the fulfillment of the obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union in the civil aviation sector. Together with legislative approximation, the aviation infrastructure is being actively improved to ensure high-quality services to increased number of passengers,” – Saghirashvili noted.

The Deputy Minister also noted that “on 28 May of 2015, the TAV-Urban Georgia Ltd has successfully renovated the Tbilisi International Airport’s runway and the light signal system within the new International Concession Agreement. In September 2017, new arrival terminal was officially opened. The Tbilisi Air Traffic Management Center was expanded to ensure the safe services for constantly increasing air transit routes. At this stage, the expansion works at the Kutaisi International Airport are underway.”

According to the results of the latest comprehensive audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Aviation Safety and Security, the overall index of the effective implementation of the international aviation standards and the civil aviation practice in Georgia has been increased by 87,64%. “With this new indicator, Georgia, according to security audit data in terms of implementation and supervision of international aviation standards, is at the 30th place in the world, the 10th in Europe and at the 1st place in the region. As for the aviation security indicator and the introduction of the standards and practices, the relevant indicator equals to 89,8%, which is a significant improvement by 58% compared to the audit data of  2008,” – the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development said.

Akaki Saghirashvili suggested that the participants of the Summit will get interested in launching of direct flights to Georgia toward India as well as other participant countries.