The Polish air company LOT entering the Georgian market is not that cheap air company which according to Vera Qobalia, Economics Minster promises on her appointment to the post, should be. She promised that Ministry of Economic and Sustainable Development will intensively work on bringing low cost airlines to Georgia. This initiative of minister was met by air companies as not serious one. According to them the budget air companies cannot enter the country, as here the potential market is very limited, and majority of customers are taking indirect flights.
Giorgi Liparteliani, official representative of "LOT Travel" in Georgia declared that this is a low-cost carrier. Officially it will enter Georgia on September 15 and the first flight will be Warszawa-Tbilisi, the next flight will be on September 16 from Tbilisi. Qobalia said that LOT is a low cost airline and flight fares will be low, what is an important point for tourism development in Georgia. She said, many Polish tourists will have an opportunity to visit Georgia. Nevertheless the most important is a promise for flight fares affordability. According to Liparteliani the single ticket price will be 185 EUR and return-ticket price will be 275 EUR. Strange enough, what difference with the existing prices in Georgia? At the same time above the ticket price there may be charges imposed by an Airport up to 100 EUR and more.
By the way to attract more clients air companies have one more trick, - they usually said "air tickets from 185 EUR", this mean the ticket cost without charges is 185 EUR, but believe me at any time you ask it , the answer will be - that price ticket is already sold.
To compare with flight fares of other air companies it will turn out that Polish air company is not cheaper. For instance "Czech airlines" - single ticket - from 160 EUR, return-ticket 289 EUR, "Air Baltic" - single ticket - 87 EUR, Return-ticket - 138 EUR, "Luft Hansa" - return-ticket - 249 EUR.
Seems like the prices of Polish company are even higher, to compare with other companies. Moreover they are not lower, and as well the route of this Polish air company is an inconvenient one for those Georgian travelers who are traveling to Egypt, Greece or other EU country over the Warsaw. One more point, the amount of Georgian air companies on this market is decreasing more and more. In the international market the local air companies share is 60 to 40, this indicator for Georgian market is 20 to 80.
Maybe it would be better if the Ministry of Economic and Sustainable Development would care about increasing of market share of Georgian air companies and promote the local air business, because no cheaper prices are brought by the foreign air companies. Maybe would be better if they will care about the decrease of the charges in airports, which are almost as high as the ticket prices are. More over the budget air companies are not seeing the potential market in Georgia. One part of them did not decided to enter Georgia and already declared about this fact. Accordion to the newspaper "Financial", in the budget air company Wizzair they said they welcome the flights to the new direction to Georgia but main obstacle to decide to enter the market is very high airport charges. The low-cost "Air Berlin" is not going to enter Georgia; this will happen only if they will see the potential market in Georgia.
The declaration about entering the Polish airlines is made, the first flight will be performed soon, and we will see the passenger's satisfaction with this event in 1-3 month. But there are some air companies with lower flights fare; Poland Air Company has to endure a concurring environment. For information, LOT is a Poland national air company; it is a member of STAR ALLIANCE. It has as well a subsidiary company EURO LOT, which performs internal flights. The air company performs flights in 57 different directions in the world. It is notable that the flight time between Georgia and Poland is 3 hours and 40 minutes. The flights to Erevan this company already performs.
GHN, Teimuraz Chumburidze
