Airline Regulations under Georgian Aviation Legislation
The daily activity of an airline in Georgia is surrounded not only by the Aviation Code but by the many acts issued on its basis: rules, orders, directives, instructions and circulars. In international practice airline regulation is often described through the names of foreign regulatory systems, yet the requirements operating in Georgia are created precisely by the hierarchy of norms of the Georgian Code — specifically its Articles 9, 9-1, 9-2 and 10-2. This page explains how the system is built: who issues the acts, whom they bind, how they are challenged, and what the safety directive — the fastest instrument in the system — is.
The System of Normative Acts — Article 9
Under Article 9 of the Code, the regulatory organs of aviation activity, within their competence and on the basis of the Code and other legislative acts of Georgia, issue rules, orders, directives, instructions, circulars and other normative and individual acts binding on all owners and users of aviation assets — to regulate the conduct of aviation activity, the production of aviation assets, repair work, construction and operation, and for the immediate implementation of aviation security measures. The source of the binding rules is thus unified and works through a clearly defined institutional hierarchy.
By the same article, civil aviation activity, in addition to these acts, is also regulated by manuals, guidance materials and procedures approved by regulations or directives adopted by international aviation organizations and the European Union. In addition, draft normative acts of other ministries and agencies that contemplate explosions, shooting, the construction of tall structures and installations, the installation of power lines, the creation of radio interference and the performance of other work hazardous to safe air movement must be coordinated with the regulatory organs of aviation activity — every decision affecting air movement thus falls under aviation control.
Agency Acts and Their Challenge — Article 9-1
Article 9-1 defines the agency's own act-making: the agency's director issues normative and individual administrative-legal acts in the cases and within the limits provided by the law, other legal acts of Georgia and international treaties and agreements. The director is entitled, taking into account flight-safety and/or aviation-security requirements, to allow exceptions from the normative acts operating in civil aviation, within the cases and limits defined by the relevant acts.
For an airline, the rules on challenge and suspension matter no less: the agency's legal acts are challenged only in court, under the procedure established by legislation. Where a claim is filed in court, the operation of the corresponding act is suspended — except for an act issued because of a violation of the requirements of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, its annexes and/or other normative acts of civil aviation, which endangered or could have endangered flight safety and/or aviation security. A claim against an act that created a safety threat therefore does not stop its enforcement.