Start a Georgia-related cancellation or denied-boarding claim with the route and operating carrier. Georgian rules, EU rights and Montreal have different coverage and remedies. Organise care, ticket reimbursement, re-routing, fixed compensation and additional loss separately. Notice, cause, distance and actual arrival affect the result; three hours or EUR 600 is not a universal guarantee. Preserve the ticket, changes, written airline position and expense records. Official sources were checked on 3 October 2026.
Legal support for this matter: Consumer Protection
Short answer: select the claim before the amount
A cancellation or refusal to board does not automatically produce EUR 600. First establish the route, operating carrier, event, notice timing and replacement offered. Then separate care, ticket reimbursement, re-routing, fixed compensation and proven additional loss. Georgian passenger rules, the EU regime and the Montreal Convention create different grounds for a claim. Delay duration alone cannot determine which framework applies or how much is payable.
This guide helps passengers departing from, arriving in or connecting through Georgia organise their claim file. It does not cover every country’s domestic rules or guarantee payment. At the airport, prioritise a workable journey, necessary assistance and a written explanation. Later identify what happened, who operated the flight and benefits already received. Correct classification avoids sending the wrong form to a company that did not operate the disrupted flight.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA — official passenger-rights guidance · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights · Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file
Georgian coverage: departure and arrival differ
Article 1 of the rules approved by GCAA Director’s Order No 122 of 17 July 2012 covers departures from Georgian airports on Georgian or foreign operating carriers. For an inbound flight from another country, the relevant limb concerns a Georgian operating carrier and accounts for compensation or assistance already received in that country. Arrival in Georgia alone does not bring every foreign carrier’s flight within this rule. Nationality, booking language and payment currency cannot replace the route test.
List airport codes, date, flight number and actual operator. Keep booking, ticket and evidence of timely presentation. The rule refers to check-in timing and forty-five minutes where the ticket specifies none; this does not authorise ignoring a boarding deadline. Examine qualifying conditions and the exception for free or reduced fares unavailable to the public. An ordinary promotion or loyalty ticket is not automatically that exception. Resolve contested facts from the travel records.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122
EU coverage: direction and carrier matter
Official EU guidance explains that departures from the EU can engage EU passenger rights even on a Georgian or other non-EU airline. For arrivals from a third country into the EU, an EU carrier is normally required, with further conditions. Paris–Tbilisi and Tbilisi–Paris on the same company should therefore not automatically receive identical treatment. Internal EU flights also have their own coverage. Georgia’s adoption of European-style standards does not make a Georgian airport an EU departure point.
Test EU coverage, then Georgian coverage, and record any overlap. Particular territorial arrangements, UK rules and complex connections need separate verification. Disclose compensation or assistance already received rather than seeking incompatible duplicate recovery. An EU airline’s marketing code on a ticket does not establish the status of the actual operator. Verify the carrier and applicable coverage from the official framework before selecting the claim form.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Who operated the flight and what was the final destination?
The operating carrier may differ from the ticket platform, travel agent and prominently displayed airline brand. For a codeshare, find the statement naming the company actually operating the flight. Connect a fixed passenger-compensation claim with the relevant operator; an agent’s payment handling or sales error may remain a separate issue. Receipt of the fare alone does not automatically make one business responsible for another carrier’s disruption.
For connections, supply the complete itinerary and establish whether there was one reservation or independent tickets. Final destination and delay assessment may depend on that distinction. Missing a separately bought onward flight does not necessarily create the same entitlement as disruption of a protected through journey. Keep original and revised itineraries, actual arrival and any airport-transfer agreement. Obtain written positions when businesses redirect you to each other and incorporate them into one chronology.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights · Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file
Cancellation, involuntary refusal or voluntary surrender
Cancellation, delay and refusal to carry an individual passenger are different events. Articles 2 and 4 of the Georgian rule distinguish voluntary surrender from involuntary denied boarding. If you accept a benefit in exchange for giving up a reservation, examine that agreement and the travel alternative separately. Do not describe a passenger as a volunteer merely because the airline announced there was no seat. Record the offer and actual response.
Reasonable refusal for health, flight safety, security or inadequate travel documents differs from an overbooking refusal. Preserve passport, visa and presentation evidence while sharing personal information only as necessary. A border authority’s decision is not the same as an airline decision. If the reason is disputed, request a written explanation identifying who refused carriage, when, what was missing and the rule invoked. Compliance with the passenger’s own conditions is a material issue.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122
Cancellation notice and the timing of the alternative
Under Georgian Article 5, cancellation-notice timing affects fixed compensation. Information at least fourteen calendar days in advance is one exception. Notice between seven and fourteen days, or less than seven days, also requires examining the departure and arrival conditions of the alternative offered. The existence of a flight-change email does not prove every condition was satisfied. Official EU guidance likewise distinguishes notice periods and replacement timing. Notice and arrival are separate facts.
Preserve the full message, sending and receipt dates, recipient and time zone. An agent’s receipt and the passenger’s notification may be disputed. Georgian rules place proof of notification and its timing on the operating carrier. For cases exactly at a seven-day, fourteen-day or arrival boundary, compare the Georgian wording and applicable regime individually: translation differences exist. Travel choices and assistance are separate from whether fixed compensation survives the notice exception.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA English translation of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Extraordinary circumstances need evidence
Cause can change the outcome for fixed compensation. Georgian Articles 5 and 6 link the relevant exception to extraordinary circumstances that could not be avoided despite necessary measures. GCAA’s guidance calls for individual assessment. A label such as weather, safety or operational reasons is not the complete explanation. Identify what happened, its effect on this flight and possible measures. Cause and reasonable avoidance measures also matter under the EU route.
Request a written explanation and available supporting material, such as a restriction or incident record. Compare initial and later explanations. Another flight operating may be useful evidence, but does not alone prove your flight had to operate. Do not give every technical fault or strike the same classification; the regime and facts matter. If fixed compensation is excluded, do not automatically close reimbursement, re-routing and care questions as well.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA — official passenger-rights guidance · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Care at the airport is a separate question
Georgian Article 9 provides, where the relevant grounds exist, meals and refreshments related to waiting, necessary accommodation, appropriate transport and communication. Check Articles 5 or 6 for the event-specific trigger; every three-hour wait is not treated identically. Article 11 pays particular attention to passengers with reduced mobility, accompanying persons and unaccompanied children. Describe the actual airport need when asking for assistance.
Ask the service desk where vouchers are issued, who books accommodation and how transport is arranged. Keep evidence of assistance provided or refused. If you pay a necessary expense, retain the receipt and explain why the airline’s arrangement could not be used. Do not assume every independently selected expensive option must be reimbursed. Continuing care may depend on your travel choice and the governing regime. A carrier’s extraordinary-circumstances statement should not replace assessment of care.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Ticket reimbursement or continuing the journey
Where triggered, Article 8 offers reimbursement with an appropriate return to the starting point, earliest comparable re-routing, or later convenient re-routing subject to seats. Reimbursement for a completed part is connected with loss of the journey’s original purpose. Choose according to your need and confirm the choice in writing. An unconditional demand for both reimbursement and transport on the same journey does not express that choice accurately. Fixed compensation is assessed separately.
Georgian Article 8(1)(a) states the seven-day ticket reimbursement period runs from the flight date in the reservation or ticket. The English document omits that starting point; do not silently import one from another regime. Check the package-travel qualification. Keep the selected option, replacement details and money already returned. Before buying a replacement yourself, record the carrier’s offer or refusal and why the expense was necessary; full reimbursement of any new ticket is not automatic.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA English translation of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Distance, amount and possible reduction
When compensation conditions are met, Georgian Article 7 sets EUR 250 through 1,500 kilometres, EUR 400 above 1,500 through 3,500, and EUR 600 above 3,500. Distance uses the great-circle method. These bands answer the amount question after coverage, event and exceptions have been examined. EU amounts require their own classification, including the treatment of longer intra-EU routes. A continent’s name does not establish EUR 600.
For cancellation or denied boarding, the Georgian rule allows a fifty-percent reduction when replacement arrival falls within the relevant two-, three- or four-hour distance-based window. A separate long-distance delay provision also exists. Preserve original scheduled and replacement actual arrival. Show the route, distance, currency and reduction basis. No entitlement, reduced entitlement and an unpaid full amount are different conclusions. Starting with the largest attractive figure does not change the facts needed to distinguish them.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Three hours: arrival timing and qualifications
The guide primarily selects cancellation and denied-boarding claims, but a flight may instead be delayed. Georgian Article 6(4) compares actual arrival at destination with the ticket’s scheduled arrival and addresses a delay of at least three hours, subject to extraordinary circumstances. The agency’s English translation says departure at this point and does not match Georgian. Do not treat ordinary flight duration as delay by reading that sentence literally.
Record departure and arrival delay separately. Georgian care triggers vary by distance at two, three or four hours, with the reimbursement provision relevant at five hours. Official EU guidance identifies final-destination delay of three hours or more with an extraordinary-circumstances exception; amount and other conditions still matter. Delay against a replacement flight’s new schedule does not replace comparison with the original journey. Preserve all schedules and actual arrival evidence to avoid errors from time zones or midnight.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA English translation of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights
Montreal: a different basis and scope
The 1999 Montreal Convention is not the EUR 250, 400 or 600 fixed-compensation table. Article 1 defines international carriage using the agreed departure and destination and relevant foreign stopping arrangements. A domestic Georgian flight is not automatically international carriage under the Convention. Check the ticket and agreed overall journey. Carrier nationality alone is not its only coverage criterion, and EU passenger coverage does not settle every Montreal condition.
ICAO’s current parties list records Georgia’s accession deposit on 20 December 2010 and entry into force for Georgia on 18 February 2011. These are different dates. News of signature or approval is not a substitute for verifying entry into force. Examine the other relevant state’s status and the journey’s international character. Identify the particular loss associated with delay and its proof. Waiting a long time at an airport does not itself create a fixed Montreal payment.
Official sources: Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file · ICAO — current parties to the Montreal Convention
Proven loss, liability limits and the time bar
Article 19 concerns loss caused by delay and the carrier’s defence of necessary reasonable measures or impossibility. Prepare the particular loss, causation and supporting documents. An unused hotel or replacement-travel receipt does not automatically establish full recoverability; examine conditions, refunds and reasonable mitigation. Identify who paid and who owns the claim. General disappointment and documented financial loss do not use the same evidential analysis.
ICAO’s revision effective 28 December 2024 sets the ordinary Article 22(1) passenger-delay limit at 6,303 Special Drawing Rights. This is a liability limit, not a guaranteed payment; exceptions need individual assessment. Do not use original figures in the older Georgian treaty file as the current table. Article 35 extinguishes the damages right if action is not brought within two years from the relevant starting event, with computation governed by the seized court’s law. Airline correspondence should not be assumed to suspend it automatically. Other claims have separate deadlines.
Official sources: Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file · ICAO — 2024 revised Montreal liability limits
Prepare the flight and expense evidence file
Collect passenger names, tickets, booking reference, operating-carrier identification, complete itinerary and original schedule. Add check-in and boarding evidence, cancellation notices, airport-board photographs, alternatives offered and actual arrival records. Date and identify each item while retaining originals. An unverified social-media comment is not a replacement for the airline’s specific explanation. A family file should still separate each passenger’s ticket and claim.
List care expenses, reimbursement, fixed compensation and additional loss independently. Attach proof of payment, necessity and amounts already reimbursed to each receipt. Disclose vouchers, replacement flights, insurance payments and compensation abroad. Avoiding duplication is part of substantiation. Log complaint, acknowledgement and response dates. If a representative assists, clarify authority and document access; full passport copies and sensitive booking details need not be published in an open forum.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights · Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file
Worked hypothetical: three routes, different checks
Imagine three independent passengers. One leaves Tbilisi for an EU city on a non-EU operating carrier and the flight is cancelled. Another returns from the EU to Tbilisi on that type of carrier. A third travels from another non-EU country to Georgia on a foreign operator. Georgian departure coverage is a starting check for the first; EU departure coverage matters for the second; the Georgian destination alone is insufficient for the third’s inbound Georgian limb. Other national rules or Montreal may remain relevant.
These examples promise no outcome. Add notice, alternatives, cause, distance and benefits received to each file. Twenty days’ advance notice differs from an airport cancellation. Missing travel documents differs from overbooking. Proven additional loss needs the international-carriage and evidence analysis. The same ticket price does not produce the same compensation; the work plan follows the actual facts.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights · Montreal Convention 1999 — GCAA official Georgian file
Airline claim, regulator and source currentness
Send the initial claim to the relevant airline through its current form or channel. Specify route, operator, event, notice, selected alternative and each requested amount’s basis. Ask for a written response and retain acknowledgement. GCAA’s official page provides a complaint form and supervision route after refusal; the EU route requires identifying its competent national body separately. Regulatory review and proving damages in court are different processes.
Sources were checked on 3 October 2026. The Georgian rule was found through GCAA’s current director-orders catalogue; its English translation contains material timing differences. Direct EUR-Lex access was blocked by automated verification, so EU coverage and practical explanations were checked against official Your Europe guidance; no claim of re-reading the complete EU legislative text is made. ICAO status and revised limits were independently verified. Exact boundaries, overlapping regimes and deadlines need the complete file; consultation does not guarantee payment.
Official sources: GCAA — Georgian text of Order No 122 · GCAA English translation of Order No 122 · GCAA — official passenger-rights guidance · EU Your Europe — air passenger rights · ICAO — current parties to the Montreal Convention · ICAO — 2024 revised Montreal liability limits
Important noteThis material is general information, not personalised legal advice. Recheck current law, official practice, fees and deadlines against your facts before acting.