Airlines
The carriers most of our searches come back with. Each guide covers the practical part — hubs, what the fare includes, where the catches are — and lists the airline’s busiest routes with a live search a click away.
Turkish Airlines
Full-service · Istanbul (IST)
Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline, all of it through Istanbul — which makes it the default connecting carrier for most of Europe, the Caucasus and beyond. Wide-body routes carry a proper business cabin, and the airline is known above all for its catering: hot meals survive even on short hops where rivals hand out a biscuit.
Georgian Airways
Full-service · Tbilisi (TBS)
Georgian Airways is the national carrier, flying from Tbilisi to a compact European and regional network. The fleet is small and schedules are leaner than the big hubs’, but on its direct routes it often has the only non-stop of the day.
Lufthansa
Full-service · Frankfurt (FRA), Munich (MUC)
Lufthansa is Europe’s largest airline group flag, running twin hubs at Frankfurt and Munich and rolling out its newest Allegris cabins across the long-haul fleet. Its network strength is connections: nearly any city pair in the world joins up over one of the two hubs.
Wizz Air
Low-cost · Budapest (BUD) and bases across Europe, incl. Kutaisi (KUT)
Wizz Air is central Europe’s biggest low-cost airline and the reason Kutaisi punches far above its weight: the base there connects Georgia to a long list of European cities at fares the full-service carriers cannot match.
Pegasus Airlines
Low-cost · Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)
Pegasus is Turkey’s low-cost counterpart to Turkish Airlines, hubbed on the Asian side of Istanbul at Sabiha Gökçen. It connects the Caucasus and the Middle East to Europe with some of the cheapest through-fares on the market.
Qatar Airways
Full-service · Doha (DOH)
Qatar Airways runs one of the world’s most awarded premium operations through Hamad International in Doha, with the Qsuite business cabin as its calling card and a network built for one-stop journeys between Europe and Asia, Africa and Australia.
Air France
Full-service · Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
Air France flies the flag through Paris-CDG with a long-haul network deep into the Americas and Africa and its newest La Première and business products concentrated on the flagship routes. Catering and wine service remain a genuine differentiator, even in economy.
KLM
Full-service · Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)
KLM is the world’s oldest airline still flying under its original name, and Schiphol’s single-terminal design makes it one of the easiest hubs in Europe to connect through. World Business Class brings Dutch design to the long-haul cabin.