“Sakaeronavigatsia” Ltd. of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, together with the aeronautical service provider organization of Armenia - ARMATS, is launching the most important project in the South Caucasus region – the introduction of free route airspace between Georgia and Armenia.

The project envisages the opportunity of the use of free routes by the aircraft flying in Georgian and Armenian airspace, indicating only the point of entry and exit, and it will be marked as the Free Route Airspace in South Caucasus Area - FRASC. Georgia and Armenia began working on the free route airspace project in 2017 and it will enter into force on November 8, 2019, at 00:00.

Gocha Mezvrishvili, Director General of “Sakaeronavigatsia” Ltd., Artur Gasparyan, Director General of Armenian Aeronautical Service Provider Organization, and the members of EUROCONTROL Delegation will monitor the implementation of this important project from the regional ATC center of Tbilisi.

According to Gocha Mezvrishvili, Director General of “Sakaeronavigatsia” Ltd., three-quarters of the European airspace already uses free routes. “I am glad that we were the first to introduce free route airspace in the Transcaucasian region, and today we are starting the second phase of this concept. We allow the airlines crossing Georgia and Armenia on one route to choose the shortest route while flying, to save time and fuel, and therefore to plan their expenses more efficiently. It’s a quite difficult mission and I’m glad that our team has successfully coped with this global challenge.”

The ATC specialists of “Sakaeronavigatsia” Ltd., together with the representatives of EUROCONTROL and Armenia, will observe the process of introduction of free route airspace on-site for several days.

Georgia joined the initiative of the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation on the introduction of free route airspace in 2017. According to the action plan of the organization, free route airspace will be fully introduced across Europe in 2022.