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British Airways adds flights to Tbilisi

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At 9.29am yesterday morning, we received a press release from easyJet entitled “easyJet announces brand new route to Georgia with UK’s only direct flights to Tbilisi“.

It didn’t have the monopoly for long.

On the dot of noon, British Airways announced its own services to Tbilisi.

British Airways adds flights to Tbilisi

Coincidence? The fact that BA’s press release includes a quote from the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia suggests not. Implicit or explicit underwriting of the route was presumably on offer.

British Airways will operate four flights per week from Heathrow from 31st March, departing every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

I should warn you that the flight times stink. You leave Heathrow at 9.25pm and fly overnight, landing at 5.30am. Remember that this is an A320neo service, not a long haul aircraft. The return flight leaves Tbilisi at 7.10am or 7.30am depending on the day.

The easyJet flights will be from London Luton and will operate twice per week, on Tuesday and Saturday. It is only scheduled to operate for the summer season, to the end of October.

Flights times with easyJet are more civilised on the outbound. You leave Luton at 11.25am or 1.40pm, depending on day, landing in Georgia at 8.25pm or 10.40pm. The return leaves at 8.55pm or 11.20pm, landing back in Luton at 10.15pm or 0.30am.

Your best bet is potentially an easyJet flight outbound, with your return flight depending on whether you fancy getting up very early (for the BA return) or staying up very late (for the easyJet return).

On the upside, the British Airways flights will earn 160 tier points return in Club Europe.

Both BA and easyJet flights are now bookable.

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Comments (63)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • BJ says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:04

    You forgot the ‘Hilton adds a credit card’ bit 🙂

  • CamFlyer says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:16

    The route was in very high demand from the Georgian business community. The government has also invested heavily in tourist promotion.

  • G says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:16

    Overnight in an A320? Jog on.

    • CamFlyer says:
      19 Sep19 September 07:41

      Until 2012, BA ran the overnight Moscow flight on an A320 as well, with similar timings (1 hour shorter flight time). It was still in high demand.

  • Stephen says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:46

    Can SLH be booked through Emyr?

    • Rob says:
      19 Sep19 September 08:40

      Some, yes, but I don’t think you’d get Hilton points as they go through the hotel directly.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:54

    Is there a comfortable way to get to Georgia.

    Mrs MacK goes to Georgian singing classes and wants to visit – but neither of us would do six hours in lo-co style economy!

    • CamFlyer says:
      19 Sep19 September 08:11

      I flew AJet via SAW and paid for emergency exit / extra legroom seats. There were Priority Pass / Plaza Premium lounges at all three airports (STN, SAW, TBS), and acceptable takeaway food options. It wasn’t much off of CE, for a far lower price and better choice of flight times than BA will offer (other than the connection). At the time AJet still earned in Miles & Smiles, though that has ended.

    • IPC says:
      19 Sep19 September 08:16

      Via Doha with QR.

    • John G says:
      19 Sep19 September 08:49

      With TK you can fly a widebody on both LHR-IST and IST-TBS. Might be worth it if flying up front. Timings will still suck though in most cases.

    • Lady London says:
      19 Sep19 September 17:50

      I would have thought TK. Rome2rio is useful for ideas.

  • David says:
    19 Sep19 September 08:22

    Congrats to Merab Dvashvili for his win on weekend. Georgian powerhouse.

  • Panda Mick says:
    19 Sep19 September 08:56

    I’m really happy to hear about the Georgia flights. It’s been on my list for some time, as a bunch of my friends have spent time in Svaneti, and claimed it to be staggeringly beautiful.

    For those in London not accustomed to Georgian food, which is excellent, Shoty in Kensington is amazing. Don’t expect the Ritz. But, do expect amazing food (and bread, of course!)

    • Daniel says:
      19 Sep19 September 09:08

      When I booked some CE tickets on it yesterday, availability was wide open as you’d expect due to the guaranteed number of seats available (8+4).

    • Lady London says:
      19 Sep19 September 17:54

      Kindsmarauli (my fave when I had a close friend who was Georgian) used to be available at Majestic in London. Worth seeking out.

  • Sarah says:
    19 Sep19 September 09:20

    The pricing for Tbilisi seems a bit steep. I was hoping for a £50 per person CE return with a 241…
    Pricing below is for 2:
    47000 Avios + £ 548.00
    38500 Avios + £ 788.00
    35500 Avios + £ 1,148.00
    26500 Avios + £ 1,608.00
    19500 Avios + £ 1,948.00

    • Sarah says:
      19 Sep19 September 09:22

      I forgot the headline price of 48500 Avios + £ 410.00 with a 241

      • LittleNick says:
        19 Sep19 September 10:17

        Long haul pricing on short haul aircraft

        • meta says:
          19 Sep19 September 13:17

          Cash prices too. On some days nearly £900 for return in J.

          • Londonsteve says:
            19 Sep19 September 13:52

            I saw that. I can’t believe they’ll stay that high, new routes tend to start very high as only the highest fare buckets are accessible, but then I saw that some return legs are only £80 in Economy, so perhaps they’ve been loaded but these fares are as good as they get? I struggle to imagine who wants to pay £900 return to sit in a 30″ pitch economy seat on an overnight flight. This might be more about offering a Business product to those connecting onto long-haul Business at LHR who end up in these seats by default.

          • LittleNick says:
            19 Sep19 September 18:13

            This would be a good route for one of the smaller 787’s, was going to suggest a350-900 if BA had any, sadly one would have to endure a long journey with little pitch. Not much fun

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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