Page 70 - GEORptOct22

Georgian Airways files for insolvency, put up for sale
in 2023, with the others following in 2024.
The passenger aircraft are being converted into freighters in China.
A spokesperson for Georgian Airlines Group said: "Due to a growth-oriented strategy and increased cargo transportation demand in the global market, we have decided to acquire our own cargo planes converted by Boeing,." They added that "the new BCFs will carry a range of general cargo shipments and dangerous goods through Eurasian countries."
Georgian Airlines was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Tbilisi. It carries out air cargo transportation by charter and regular flights across Europe, CIS countries, the Middle East and Asia.
The airline's freighter fleet currently has one B737-800BCF and one B737-800SF. The B737-800BCF has the capacity to carry 23.9 tonnes and fly an additional 3,750 kilometres compared to the existing B737 Classic versions.
Georgia’s national airline, Georgian Airways, has been put on the block after the carrier filed for insolvency. Listed for an asking price of $150mn, the 28-year-old airline said that the pandemic-induced collapse of air travel forced the company to the verge of bankruptcy.
Since 1993, “we have proudly flown under the Georgian flag. We have not stopped flying even in the hardest periods for Georgia”, the company said in a January 18 statement. “But the air travel industry has been hit hard by the sudden drop in flights and, unfortunately, Georgian Airways was no exception.” Owing upwards of $57mn in debts to more than 70 corporate partners and 16,000 passengers, the company went into debt proceedings on January 11. A court approved the carrier’s insolvency management plan late last year, and the company has been listed for sale on a broker’s website.
Georgian Airways continues to carry out flights even as it goes into debt proceedings. The carrier performs up to eight scheduled flights a day – to select European capitals and other post-Soviet and Middle Eastern destinations – and employs 473 people. With its assets estimated at a modest $7mn, the company is 80%-owned by its general director, Davit Gaiashvili.
As of 2019, Tel Aviv and Moscow were the company’s most popular destinations. Georgian Airways also had the second-largest share of passenger load in and out of Georgia that year, behind only the global giant Turkish Airlines.
But the company suffered a major blow in 2019 when Moscow banned direct flights to Georgia in response to anti-Russia protests in Tbilisi. The airline reportedly sustained $30mn in losses because of the Russian embargo. Separately, it faced growing competition from budget airlines and feuded with TAV Urban Georgia, a Turkish corporation operating the two main airports in Georgia, over airport fees.
The coup de grace came the following year, when the COVID pandemic grounded planes around the world. The airline’s sales listing reported that in 2019 it carried about 500,000 passengers, about 10% of the passengers who travelled in and out of Georgia. By 2021, according to the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency, it carried under 73,000 passengers, about 3% of the country’s total.
70 GEORGIA Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com