Aero Georgia Group seeks to start certification in late 1Q20

Japanese PM advisor suggests JAL/ANA merger

Australian carriers up capacity as interstate borders reopen

The reopening of the border between Queensland, Victoria (VIC), and Greater Sydney on December 1, 2020, will see Australian carriers add thousands of flights on the interstate routes in the run-up to Christmas.

Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane Int'l) said it experienced its single busiest day of sales since before COVID-19 on November 24 on the back of the announcement, with more than 60% of flights booked being for travel up to and during Christmas. Flight searches for routes between New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland had more than doubled. The top five routes (both ways) were: Brisbane Int'l-Sydney Kingsford Smith; Coolangatta/Gold Coast-Sydney; Melbourne Tullamarine-Gold Coast; Brisbane-Melbourne; and Sunshine Coast and Melbourne.

Resuming flights between the states for the first time since March 2020, Virgin from December 1 would increasingly add more than 38,000 seats between VIC and Queensland by Christmas, the airline announced. Flights between Melbourne and Brisbane would operate 2x daily from December 1, increasing to 5x daily by Christmas. Services between Melbourne and popular leisure destinations on...

Aero Georgia targets 2H20 launch

Aero Georgia (Tbilisi) is nearing an agreement with undisclosed investors amid plans to start operations in autumn this year, Chief Executive Igor Aptsiauri told Forbes.

"We want to start the certification process as early as possible because it will take another six to seven months. Then we still have a chance to start operations from maybe September, October of this year," he said.

He added that two Eastern European investors would "imminently" decide on their plans for the start-up while declining to name them.

Aero Georgia, which is a part of Aptsiauri-led Aero Georgia Group, plans to launch as a charter carrier with a single narrowbody seating around 150 passengers. The airline is looking to serve a variety of markets, ranging from executive and sport team charters to leisure passengers, flying to Europe, the Middle East, and the CIS region. Going forward, it plans to add one aircraft per year.

Aptsiauri admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the timeline but said that demand for charters should be revived by the time...

Aero Georgia seeks European investor

Aero Georgia Group is in talks with a European investor to raise the capital it requires to set up a new Georgian airline, which will be called Aero Georgia (Tbilisi).

“One of the projects we are working on is the creation of a new airline. We are already in intensive talks with a potential investor," Aero Georgia Group Director Igor Aptsiauri, told Caucasus Business Week. "It will be a passenger airline, although the business model is still under discussion. It could be full service, low-cost, mixed or chartered, [it is] still in development. The airline will most likely be called Aero Georgia."

Aptsiauri added: "I am pleased that the investor is from Europe and most importantly from the aviation sector.”

Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) is currently Georgia's largest carrier in terms of weekly seats, commanding 22%, followed by Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New) with 14% and Georgian Airways (A9, Tbilisi) with 8%.

Tbilisi-based Georgian Airways has a mixed fleet of a sole B737-800, three E190...