TWO AIRZENA PLANES PICK UP ISRAELIS STRANDED IN GEORGIA
By Zohar Blumenkrantz and Yuval Azoulay

Ha’aretz
Wed., August 13, 2008
Israel

Airzena Georgian Airways operated two flights last night from Tbilisi
to Ben-Gurion International Airport – one flight landed at 9 P.M. and
the other was set to touch down at 1 A.M. today.

Airzena CEO Tango Simon told Haaretz that the two flights, on 737s,
were completely full, with about 120 passengers on each flight,
mainly tourists and businessmen. Advertisement

There were 70 passengers on the return flight from Ben-Gurion to
Tbilisi, about half the number of ticket holders. The rest of the
passengers had canceled their ticket.

On the second flight back to Tbilisi, Airzena was to fly humanitarian
aid only, with no passengers scheduled to be onboard.

The landing in Tbilisi yesterday of two El Al planes sent to evacuate
Israelis from Georgia was coordinated with Russia, so Russian fighter
jets would not harm the planes or interfere with the landing, Haaretz
has learned.

The government chartered the flights from El Al Israel Airlines at
a cost between $70,000 and $80,000 per flight.

The decision to evacuate the Israelis on special El Al flights was
made around midnight Monday, after it became clear that overland
evacuations via neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia or
Turkey – followed by special flights on Arkia – were not practical.

On the second flight back to Tbilisi, the Health Ministry was to fly
2.5 tons of medical equipment including bandages and other battlefield
medical gear to Tbilisi.

The Health Ministry said yesterday that the shipment of the equipment
followed a request from the Foreign Ministry.

Army Radio reported yesterday that over the past few days, around
60 Jewish families in Georgia have approached Jewish Agency
representatives for help in moving to Israel.