Director of GCAA reviews 2019, talks about future goals and plans for 2020

Georgian Civil Aviation Agency held a presentation on the results of 2019 and plans for 2020. The presentation was held at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and was attended by the Minister of Economy Natia Turnava and the Director of the Civil Aviation Agency, Levan Karanadze.

As Karanadze noted during the presentation, Georgian Civil Aviation is first in the region in terms of international flight safety and security standards and the top ten countries in Europe.

According to Levan Karanadze, by the end of 2019, 32 passenger airlines were present at the Georgian Civil Aviation market; 30 of them were foreign airlines.

During the same period, there were flights from Georgia to 74 international destinations in 36 countries around the world, including 20 European countries, with an average of 340 weekly flights.

The head of the Civil Aviation Agency also presented the positive dynamics of passenger transport by Georgian airports, which is increasing, and in 2019, despite stopping flights from Russia, Georgia's airports served more passengers than in 2018.

According to Levan Karanadze, the growth was 3.5 percent. In 2019, the increase in passenger fare at Kutaisi International Airport was more than 41 percent and in Batumi - 4 percent.

According to the director of the Civil Aviation Agency, the quality of flight safety and supervision has increased significantly. He said that in recent years, Georgia's compliance with the world's aviation safety oversight has improved significantly (from 32 percent to 88 percent).

As Karanadze says, reforms in the Georgian civil aviation sector will continue, including that the agency plans to introduce noise requirements for foreign aircrafts at Georgian airports. The purpose of the rule is to minimize the noise generated by aircraft while operating at Georgian airports.

It is also planned, according to the relevant European regulation, to obtain the certification of air traffic supervisors, which will ensure full compliance of Georgian certificates with EU standards. New requirements for supervisor qualifications and their working process will be established.

As the Minister of Economy noted, the safety of national aviation represents one of the most important things for the development of Georgian economy, and in particular, tourism.

“Continuation of the international flight standards implementation will attract more successful international airlines to the Georgian air market,” noted Turnava.

Turnava noted that it is also important that the Civil Aviation Administration makes effective decisions to develop a network of small aviation and small airports in the country.

Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (GCAA) is the Legal Entity of Public Law under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, responsible for the safe and secure operation, technical regulation, continuous surveillance and oversight of Civil Aviation in country.

The Agency was created on April 15, 2011 following the Law of Georgia “On the Management and Regulation of Transport Field”, as well as taking into account EC and ICAO recommendations, international standards and recommended practices in this sphere.

GCAA is responsible for the monitoring and progress of Civil Aviation in Georgia, State administration and safety oversight in this sector, development of regulations and procedures, supervision over their fulfillment and provision of services related to the issues above.