The Right of Flight and Its Administrative Foundations
The right of flight in the airspace of Georgia is not an abstract but a formalized right: its exercise depends on rules, a plan and documents, and it is precisely this formalism that sometimes becomes the subject of dispute — between operators and the Agency, between parties and control bodies. Under Article 45 of the Air Code, an aircraft having state registration and identification marks, duly prepared and carrying all necessary documents established by the supervision and regulation bodies is admitted to flight in Georgian airspace; an exception may be allowed for experimental aircraft and aircraft not requiring state registration.
Flight Rules and Airspace
In Georgian airspace the flight of an aircraft is performed in accordance with the flight rules established by the Agency, which embrace the flight plan, instrument and visual flight rules, rights of priority flight and other matters connected with performing the flight. In restricted, dangerous and temporary zones the flight is performed under the procedure established by legislation, protecting the safety of civil aviation. Over the high seas, in airspace where Georgia provides air traffic services, flight is performed without exception in observance of the requirements of Annex 2 to the Chicago Convention of 1944 on International Civil Aviation — international standards are thus directly embedded in the national regime.
The Flight Plan and the Flight Assignment
Every departure of a civil aircraft is performed according to the flight plan, in agreement with the air traffic service body; that of a state aircraft — according to the flight plan, on the basis of permission of the respective service of the Ministry of Defence. Deviation from the flight plan is allowed with the consent of the respective body or in the separate cases provided by law. The basic document defining the purpose, task and route of the flight is the flight assignment signed by an authorized official — in examining a dispute, it is often precisely this document that becomes the object of inquiry into whether the flight was performed lawfully. Its form and manner of completion are established by joint order of the ministers, and comparing it with the flight plan and the actual route is therefore the first analytical step: where the plan and the assignment do not match, the assessment of the lawfulness of the flight begins precisely from that discrepancy.