Skip to content
Coverage

Flight disruption

Georgia — air passenger rights under the EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement

NationalGEDerived or secondary source

Georgia

Rule id
air.ge-caa
Version
1.0.0
In force from
November 20, 2012
Last read against its sources
August 5, 2026
Countries bound
Georgia

In plain language

What this regime says.

Georgia agreed by treaty to apply Regulation 261/2004 in its own market. A passenger denied boarding or hit by a short-notice cancellation on a departure from Tbilisi, Batumi or Kutaisi is therefore entitled to the European amounts — EUR 250, 400 or 600 by distance.

Who is covered

Passengers departing Georgia, and passengers on Georgian-licensed carriers.

What you get

EUR 250 / 400 / 600 by distance for involuntary denied boarding and short-notice cancellation, a refund or rerouting at your choice, and care while you wait.

Where claims go wrong

  • Being told the European Regulation does not apply. The relevant instrument is the Common Aviation Area Agreement, which makes it apply in Georgia.
  • Assuming a three-hour delay pays. Outside the Union the Sturgeon reasoning is persuasive, not binding.
  • Not complaining to the Civil Aviation Agency, which is the designated enforcement body.
The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.
  1. EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement, Annex IIICommon Aviation Area Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Georgia, of the other part (signed 2 December 2010; OJ L 321, 20.11.2012), Annex III listing the Union acts on consumer protection to be applied, including Regulation (EC) No 261/2004URL verified 2026-08-05
  2. Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 7(1)Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flightsURL verified 2026-08-05Art. 7(1)

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

The clocks it starts

  • Two years for a Montreal Convention claim (Art. 35)This bars the Convention claim for proven delay damages on international carriage. It does not bar the statutory compensation, which runs on the national limitation period instead — but the two are usually claimed in the same letter, so treat the shorter one as the deadline that matters.Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 35(1) — Art. 35(1)Limitation period

What it entitles you to, beyond money

  • Meals, communications and a hotel while you waitThe duty of care is the part of this family of regimes that bites hardest in practice and is most often ignored: meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two telephone calls or emails, and hotel accommodation with transfers where an overnight stay becomes necessary. It applies from two hours on a short flight, three in the middle band and four on a long one, and it applies whatever caused the disruption — including weather, which carriers use to refuse everything. Keep every receipt; unprovided care is recoverable.
  • At five hours, you may abandon the journey and take your money backThis right is express rather than argued, and almost nobody uses it. Once the delay reaches five hours you may decline to travel at all and require reimbursement of the full ticket price for the parts of the journey not made, together with the parts already made if the flight no longer serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plan — plus, where relevant, a flight back to your first point of departure at the earliest opportunity.
  • Montreal Convention damages for delay (international carriage)On international carriage between States Parties, Art. 19 of the Montreal Convention makes the carrier liable for the damage the delay actually caused you — the unused hotel night, the missed onward booking, the extra meals and transport — unless it proves it took all measures that could reasonably be required. It is capped at 6,303 SDR per passenger (the figure ICAO set with effect from 28 December 2024) and it requires receipts, not a formula. This claim exists independently of any national scheme, and airlines never mention it. The right is extinguished two years after arrival under Art. 35.Art. 19, Art. 22(1)

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

"Regulation 261 does not apply to us"

high likelihood

The carrier says the European Regulation has no application to a flight departing outside the European Union, and treats that as the end of the claim.

What answers it

That is true and irrelevant. You are not claiming under the European Regulation. You are claiming under the Georgian implementation of Regulation 261/2004 under the EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement, which is national law binding on carriers operating from Georgia, and which sets the same amounts. Name the national instrument in the first line of your letter and the answer changes.

EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement, Annex III

A voucher instead of money

high likelihood

The carrier offers a travel voucher, often nominally larger than the cash figure, and presents it as the settlement.

What answers it

Compensation is a money entitlement. A voucher requires your written agreement, and you can decline it without prejudicing anything. Vouchers expire, exclude peak dates, cannot be transferred and are worthless if the airline fails. The cash has none of those properties.

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 7(1) — Art. 7(1)

"It was a technical fault, which is extraordinary"

high likelihood

An aircraft defect is presented as an event outside the carrier's control.

What answers it

A technical problem arising in the ordinary course of operating an airline is inherent in that activity and is not extraordinary. The exceptions are narrow: a hidden manufacturing defect revealed by the manufacturer or a safety regulator, or damage from sabotage or terrorism. Ask what the defect was, when it was found, and what the carrier did about it — an airline that will not answer has not discharged a burden that sits on it.

EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement, Annex III

Where to take it next

  1. Written claim to the airlineWrite to the carrier naming the Georgian implementation of Regulation 261/2004 under the EU–Georgia Common Aviation Area Agreement and Art. 7(1) of Regulation 261/2004, the flight number and date, the distance band and the figure. Ask for payment by bank transfer within 14 days and say you will complain to the regulator if it is not made.Claim directtypically 30 days
  2. Civil Aviation Agency of GeorgiaThe Agency is the national enforcement body for passenger rights under the Common Aviation Area Agreement. Complain in writing, in English if you prefer, and quote the Agreement by name — it is the instrument that makes the European figures Georgian law.Regulatortypically 90 daysofficial page
  3. Civil court claimBinding on themA Georgian civil claim is the route to enforcement if the carrier refuses. Because the entitlement rests on the Agreement and its implementing rule rather than on the European Regulation directly, take the Agreement text with you.Small claimstypically 180 days

Documents

What this regime can produce.

Every one of these is a document you send yourself, in your own name. Duesday never writes to anybody on your behalf and is never anyone’s agent.

The same claim type elsewhere

Belarus — Air Code of the Republic of Belarus and the Department of AviationBYNational — BelarusВоздушный кодекс Республики БеларусьConfidence: lowEU Regulation 261/2004 (air passenger rights)EUSupranational — 31 countriesRegulation (EC) No 261/2004Confidence: highGermany — contractual damages beyond the Article 7 sum (BGB)DENational — GermanyRegulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 12(1)Confidence: mediumItaly — ruined-holiday damages (danno da vacanza rovinata)ITNational — ItalyRegulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 12(1)Confidence: lowMoldova — air passenger rights under the EU–Moldova Common Aviation Area AgreementMDNational — MoldovaEU–Moldova Common Aviation Area Agreement, Annex IIIConfidence: mediumRussian Federation — Air Code Art. 120 (carrier liability for delay)RUNational — RussiaВоздушный кодекс Российской Федерации, ст. 120 (Ответственность перевозчика за просрочку доставки пассажира, багажа или груза)Confidence: highSpain — further damages beyond the Article 7 sumESNational — SpainRegulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 12(1)Confidence: lowTürkiye — SHY-YOLCU air passenger rights regulationTRNational — TürkiyeSHY-YOLCU, Kapsam (scope)Confidence: medium

Does this one reach your facts?

The engine runs every regime that could apply at once and reconciles them, rather than making you guess which page to read.

Run your factsBack to the catalogue

Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.