Registration and Its Life Cycle
The legal life of an aircraft begins with registration and ends with removal from the register. Under Article 22 of the Air Code of Georgia, every airworthy aircraft is subject to compulsory state registration with the issue of an appropriate certificate: a civil aircraft — in the state register of civil aircraft or the register of ultralight aircraft; a state aircraft — in the state register kept by the Ministry of Defence. The rules of registration, recording and removal for civil aircraft are established by the Agency, and only aircraft holding an airworthiness certificate are entered in the state register. Experimental aircraft are not registered in the state register — they are recorded with the organizations carrying out test-design or scientific-research flights. An aircraft made by non-industrial means with a mass of no more than 1 000 kilograms must be registered with the appropriate aviation-sports service.
Understanding the life cycle of registration matters practically as well: the sale, write-off, loss without trace, change of purpose or transfer of an aircraft to a foreign state is always reflected in the register entry, and an incorrect state of the entry affects the force of the certificate too. Therefore, in every transaction connected with an aircraft, the first step is to verify the register data and the second is to update the entry accordingly.
Grounds for Removal from the Register
Article 23 of the Code lists the cases in which an aircraft is removed from the state register:
- on write-off due to unairworthiness;
- at the request of an authorized person;
- on declaration of the aircraft as lost without trace;
- by agreement of the contracting parties, and on transfer for term use to a foreign state or its persons;
- on change of the aircraft's purpose.
Upon removal from the register, the registration certificate issued for the aircraft loses its legal force — a rule critical under any ground of removal, since the formal existence of the certificate no longer justifies flight.
Removal also has a procedural weight of its own: since each ground is exhaustively listed, an entry cannot simply disappear — a decision grounded in one of the statutory cases stands behind it. For the owner this means predictability: the register changes only where the law itself provides the case, and any doubt about the lawfulness of a removal can be raised against that closed list.
The Right of Operation
Under Article 25, aircraft are operated in Georgia after their conformity with the flight norms established there has been determined, which is confirmed by an appropriate certificate. To secure flight safety, an agreement may be concluded between the Agency and the corresponding authority of another state on the distribution of functions and responsibilities connected with operation, in accordance with the requirements of the relevant article of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. State aircraft of Georgia are operated by the Ministry of Defence under an established procedure.
It is noteworthy that the determination of conformity is not a one-off act — the certificate reflects the continuing conformity of the aircraft, and up to removal from the register the legal status of the aircraft rests on two elements: the register entry and the valid certificate. The absence of either means the aircraft loses its lawful basis for flight. That is why every registration decision — entry, amendment or removal — must be calculated in advance.
Taken together, the procedures of registration and removal form the complete toolkit for managing the legal status of an aircraft: entry creates the status, the certificate fills it with the right of flight, and removal concludes it. At each stage of this cycle the law determines who decides and which document remains in force; for the owner, it is precisely this sequence that must be known in advance — before any transaction or flight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below we answer the questions most frequently asked on this topic.
What happens to the certificate on removal?
The registration certificate loses its legal force, and the aircraft no longer derives a right of flight from it.
May removal be requested by the owner?
Yes — the request of an authorized person is a statutory ground of removal.
What does operation require?
Determination of conformity with flight norms, confirmed by a certificate.
Who manages state aircraft?
State aircraft are operated by the Ministry of Defence.
Where are experimental aircraft recorded?
They are not registered in the state register — they are recorded with the organizations carrying out test-design or scientific-research flights, and the documents for such aircraft are determined by the normative acts of their owners.
How We Help on Legal.ge
Both registration of an aircraft and its removal from the register demand formal precision, since every error affects the force of the certificate. On Legal.ge you can consult an aviation-law lawyer who will help you with both procedures and represent your interests with the Agency. Submit a request on the site and get qualified assistance.