Georgian Airways

Georgian Airways is one of those airlines you don’t see every day in central Europe – and that’s exactly what makes it exciting. Georgia’s national airline flies a small fleet of Boeing 737s from Tbilisi to Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam and other European cities. Once you’ve had the Georgian flag on the tail in your viewfinder, you usually want the rest of the fleet too. This page shows you how to recognize Georgian Airways, which types it flies and where your chances are best.

Georgian Airways at a glance

Georgian Airways is Georgia’s national airline and is headquartered in the capital, Tbilisi. Its hub and home base is Tbilisi Airport (IATA code TBS). Unlike many flag carriers from the region, the airline is not state-owned but privately run. Still, it takes on typical tasks of a national carrier – including government and VIP flights with a business jet of its own.

The business model is a mix of scheduled and charter traffic. Scheduled flights connect Tbilisi with destinations in Europe, the Middle East and Russia, plus domestic flights to Batumi on the Black Sea coast and seasonal charters. The fleet is small and the network correspondingly compact: many destinations are served only on certain days of the week.

With large network airlines like Lufthansa or Turkish Airlines, Georgian Airways therefore has little in common. For you as a spotter that’s an advantage: the fleet can be collected completely, and every aircraft has its own story.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code A9: appears in the flight number, so on tickets, departure boards and in schedules.
• ICAO code TGZ: shows up in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign TAMAZI: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

On flight trackers in particular, it pays to look for TGZ instead of A9, because they mostly show the ICAO callsign. The difference between flight number and callsign is explained in the article Callsign vs. flight number. If you’re interested in where unusual callsigns come from, Airline callsigns and their history has more examples.

History: from Airzena to Georgian Airways

The airline’s roots lie in the early years after Georgia’s independence. Airzena was founded in September 1993, at first as a charter airline. In 1997 it began scheduled flights, to Vienna, Dubai and Tashkent among others.

An important step followed in 1999: Airzena merged with Air Georgia. Under the name Airzena Georgian Airlines it took over the role of flag carrier. In 2004 it was renamed Georgian Airways. With the new name the tail changed too: instead of the earlier Borjgali symbol, a traditional Georgian sun sign, it has shown the Georgian flag ever since.

Crisis years from 2019

Recent history is marked by setbacks. From July 8, 2019, Russia banned flights to and from Georgia. For Georgian Airways an important market disappeared; flights to Moscow ran only via detours with partners for a time. Soon after came the pandemic: international air traffic in Georgia stood still for about eleven months. When it restarted in February 2021, the airline initially offered only six destinations.

On December 31, 2021, Georgian Airways filed for insolvency proceedings with the aim of restructuring. In early 2022 the airline was put up for sale. In May 2023 Russia lifted the flight ban, and Georgian Airways resumed flights to Moscow. Because Ukraine then imposed sanctions on the airline, it is not politically uncontroversial. For context on similar cases, see the article on major airline failures in Europe.

The fleet: a small Boeing 737 family

The Georgian Airways fleet is manageable – and that’s precisely why it’s interesting for collectors. According to fleet overviews as of September 2026, it looks roughly like this (other overviews also list a 737-900ER, a CRJ200 and a second business jet):

Type	Number (approx.)	Seats	Registrations (examples)	Spotter note
Boeing 737-500	1	approx. 116, with business class	4L-TGI	Built in 1996, oldest type in the fleet (737 Classic)
Boeing 737-700	1	approx. 135, with business class	4L-NIK	Shorter 737 Next Generation
Boeing 737-800	4	172 to 189, depending on the cabin	4L-GTD, 4L-GTN, 4L-GTO, 4L-GTV	Backbone of the fleet, cabins not uniform
Bombardier Global 6000	1	VIP cabin	4L-GTG	Government and VIP flights, rarely seen in scheduled traffic

The numbers are snapshots. With a fleet this small, a single leased or returned aircraft is enough to change the picture. Before a targeted hunt, check which registration is currently active.

The workhorse is the Boeing 737-800. The aircraft come from different sources, which you notice in the cabins: some have a business class, others are pure economy aircraft. The Boeing 737-700 is the shorter sister of the same generation. The Boeing 737-500 is a true rarity: the 737 Classic has largely disappeared from European scheduled fleets. The manufacturer of all three types is Boeing.

Former types

Looking through old photos, you’ll come across a colorful list of types at Georgian Airways and Airzena. They included, among others:

• Boeing 737-300 and 737-400 – more Classic variants
• Bombardier CRJ100 – regional jet, used for the United Nations among other things
• Embraer 190 and 195 – given up during the pandemic as part of cost-cutting
• Yakovlev Yak-42 – a Soviet three-engine jet

A retired Yak-42, by the way, got an unusual second life: it was converted into a kindergarten in Rustavi. You can learn more about this generation of aircraft in the article on Soviet airliners.

737-500, -700 or -800? How to tell them apart

All three types wear the same livery. A few features quickly reveal which 737 is in front of you, though. The guide Telling Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart explains this in detail.

The shorter 737-700 and the 737-500 look similar in length. The surest way to tell them apart is the wing and the tail: the Next Generation has a larger wing and a taller vertical stabilizer, while the Classic looks more compact. Both generations have engine inlets flattened at the bottom, so that alone won’t tell you which is which.

How to recognize Georgian Airways

The most important feature is the tail with the Georgian flag: a large red cross on a white background, with a smaller red cross in each of the four fields. The flag is often called the “five-cross flag” and is easy to make out on the tail from a long way off. The white fuselage carries the “Georgian Airways” titles.

The second strong feature is the registration. Georgian aircraft carry the prefix 4L-, followed by three letters. At Georgian Airways many registrations begin with 4L-GT or 4L-TG. How country prefixes work in general is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Routes to Europe

The European network is the part of Georgian Airways that counts for spotters in German-speaking countries. According to the airline’s offering as of 2026, these destinations are among them. Some routes, for example to France and Armenia, are sold together with partners according to overviews and not flown by Georgian Airways itself:

Country	Destinations	Note
Austria	Vienna	One of the oldest destinations, already in the network in Airzena days
Germany	Berlin	Flights to BER
Netherlands	Amsterdam	Schiphol
France	Paris, Nice	Partly with partners, check who operates
Italy	Rome, Milan Bergamo, Forlì	Offering varies seasonally
Cyprus	Larnaca	Link to the eastern Mediterranean

Outside the EU, Georgian Airways flies to Tel Aviv, Yerevan and – again since the end of the flight ban in 2023 – to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, among others. Within Georgia, Batumi on the Black Sea is served. The list changes with the seasons; individual destinations are added or dropped.

According to overviews, partners include airlines such as Austrian Airlines, KLM, Air France and Aegean Airlines. Through such partnerships you can also reach Georgia with a connection. How jointly sold flights work in general is explained in the article Codeshare flights explained.

Spotting Georgian Airways

In Germany, Berlin is your best chance. At Berlin Brandenburg Airport Georgian Airways connects the capital with Tbilisi, though not daily. In the neighboring country, Vienna is worth a visit: the Tbilisi–Vienna route has a long tradition, and the airport is popular with spotters anyway. You’ll find concrete spots in the guide Plane spotting at Vienna-Schwechat, for example at the spotters’ hill or on the observation deck in Vienna. In Berlin the observation deck at BER is a good choice. You can also catch A9 flights at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

Because the fleet is small and many destinations are served only on certain days of the week, planning is everything. Check your airport’s arrivals board and compare the times with a tracker. How to use schedules for your spotting day is shown in the article Reading arrival and departure boards.

Besides Georgian Airways, on Caucasus routes you often meet Wizz Air, which mainly serves Kutaisi Airport in western Georgia, as well as airlines from neighboring countries like Azerbaijan Airlines. To put your sighting in context, see the article How rare is my sighting?. And if you collect airlines systematically, Collecting airlines has ideas for your own list.

Common mix-ups

• Taking A9 for a country code – A9 is purely an airline identifier and belongs to Georgian Airways.
• Taking every red cross on a tail for Georgia – only the 4L registration makes the assignment certain.
• Logging the 737-500 as a 737-700 – wing and tail reveal the older Classic generation.
• Listing Airzena as a separate airline – Airzena is the former name of Georgian Airways, not a separate company in today’s scheduled service.
• Copying old fleet lists – Embraers, CRJ100s and Yak-42s are no longer part of the active fleet.
• Logging the VIP jet as an airliner – the Bombardier Global 6000 flies government and VIP missions, not A9 scheduled flights.

Conclusion

Georgian Airways is a small airline with great symbolic power: Georgia’s national airline, descended from Airzena, with the national flag on the tail. The fleet of a handful of Boeing 737s can be collected completely, and with the 737-500 a real piece of Classic history flies along. If you’re watching Berlin, Vienna or Amsterdam and know the schedule, you have good chances of a sighting that not everyone has in their logbook.