Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) backer, the Russian government, and the Georgian government have tentatively agreed to a new Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) following talks between Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) and the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (GeCAA) in Tbilisi in late December.

Among the proposed terms of the agreement are that designated carriers from each country will be allowed to operate 18 flights per week on the Moscow - Tbilisi route through January 31.

"The frequencies will be distributed among air carriers that have been designated to operate the routes as per existing permits. Each party is to distribute unused frequencies in their own capacity, albeit not to more than three new carriers on each side," a communique stated.

Additional talks concerning flights from Georgia to other cities in Russia, the granting of 5th Freedom traffic rights to Georgian carriers, and outstanding fees owed by Georgian carriers for use of Russian air navigations services will be carried out later this month.

Late last year, Georgian Airways suspended its Moscow Domodedovo services in protest at what it said was the skewed allocation of traffic rights in favour of Russian operators.

Following a 6-year long hiatus brought on by the 2008 South Ossetia War, Aeroflot resumed daily direct flights between the two capitals in October 2014. Russia's other designated carriers include S7 Airlines, Globus, Transaero Airlines, Ural Airlines, UTair, and VIM Airlines.

For its part, Georgia designated Georgian Airways and LCC start-up, flyvista, for its own services to Russia.