The European country of Georgia lifted several COVID-19 restrictions today, and flydubai has already responded by resuming flights to the country last week. These flights are codeshared by Emirates and are one of a small number of ways for international travelers to reach the country, especially during the current crisis that has drastically reduced connectivity.

flydubai is back in Georgia

Last week, on January 28th, flydubai resumed flying to Tbilisi International Airport (TBS) in Georgia from its base, Dubai International (DXB). The second rotation on this route took place today, which is also the day that Georgia lifted some of its strictest restrictions, including for international travel, in light of an increasingly favorable epidemiological situation in the country.

One of the restrictions now lifted is the outright ban on inbound travel for foreign nationals. For nationals and residents of the United Arab Emirates, this has been replaced by a requirement to present a negative COVID-19 test on arrival in Tbilisi. As has become an industry standard, the test result must not be older than 72 hours at the time of departure, and it must be a PCR test.

Nationals and residents of Bahrain, which flydubai connects to Tbilisi via convenient transfer times in Dubai, are also no longer banned from entering Georgia and can enter the country with a negative PCR test result too.

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flyudubai now flies to Georgia twice weekly. Photo: Getty Images

Two weekly flights to Georgia

flydubai is now flying to Tbilisi with its Boeing 737 aircraft twice weekly. Flight FZ711 operates to Georgia and returns as flight FZ712 back to the UAE. The flights operate on Mondays and Thursdays. Return business class fares from Tbilisi to Dubai start from USD 1,082, and economy class fares start from USD 370.

Marking the occasion in a press release seen by Simple Flying, flydubai's Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations and E-commerce, Jeyhun Efendi, said,

“We have steadily grown our network to more than 65 destinations and are pleased to restart our operations to Tbilisi.  We will continue to launch flights to more destinations as restrictions ease in countries within our geographic reach.  Flights are available to book on flydubai.com.” 

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Photo: flydubai

flydubai has adapted to boost passenger confidence

In order to boost passenger confidence during the current pandemic, flydubai has redesigned its passenger experience to enable travel in a safe environment that minimizes crew and passenger contact and offers passengers the confidence to travel at every step of their journey.

The airline offers PCR testing to passengers in the UAE at special rates through a partnership with Aster DM Healthcare and NMC Healthcare, provided under the condition that they hold a valid flydubai booking confirmation.

Last week, flydubai announced it would be resuming even more routes in expectation of a loosening of travel restrictions. The two routes will resume in May, and they are Catania and Naples in Italy. The airline will also launch flights to Salzburg in Austria and Malta.

Do you think flydubai is resuming routes too fast, or is it making a wise move in doing so before many other airlines do? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.