Air Caucasus (Tbilisi) has announced plans to now finally launch operations from Tbilisi later this year initially offering regional services to Baku Heydar Aliev International, Yerevan as well as Istanbul and yet to be named destinations in Russia with the aim of establishing Tbilisi as a regional hub. It had initially planned to launch domestic operations in Georgia between Tbilisi and Kutaisi last year but has not yet done so. Air Caucasus will compete with Georgian Airways (A9, Tbilisi) and Fly Georgia (Tbilisi) which already both operate with similar business models.