MyWay Airlines (MJ, Tbilisi) has undergone an abrupt change in ownership and leadership, with Georgian national Igor Aptsiauri leaving his position of commercial director and selling his 51% stake in the carrier, the news agency Business Media Georgia reported on November 1.

Aptsiauri told the news agency that the decision to depart was his own, as he is in the process of establishing a separate company, a tour operator and aviation consultancy, together with a newly formed team.

The sale price of the 51% stake remains unknown, a detail Aptsiauri declined to reveal. The new owner is Georgian Huashun International Industrial Investment Group, a Kutaisi-based investment company engaged in tourism, hotels, and furniture trading.

Aptsiauri had held the 51% stake since October 2018. As a former shareholder of MyWay Airlines, he said he had "high hopes that the airline will continue to operate on the market."

Contacted by Business Media Georgia, MyWay said it would certainly continue operating and that new destinations were planned for the Summer 2020 season.

Backed by China's Hualing Group, MyWay Airlines launched operations last spring, its first flight taking place on March 31, 2018. Since then it has kept its fleet at two B737-800s, currently operating 3x weekly to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion according to the ch-aviation capacities module. But its services have been dealt a blow by the Russian ban on all direct traffic to and from Georgia, which has been in place since July 8. It currently wet-leases one of the B737s to Sudan's Badr Airlines (J4, Khartoum).