On the afternoon of July 15, 2026, China Eastern Airlines Flight MU285 carrying inaugural passengers departed from Shanghai Pudong International Airport for Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, marking the official launch of the first direct passenger air route linking the Yangtze River Delta with Georgia. It is also the first air route between the two countries operated by wide-body aircraft.
The round-trip flight numbers for the Shanghai-Tbilisi service are MU285/MU286, operated by Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft with three weekly flights every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Outbound flight MU285 is scheduled to take off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 12:50 Beijing Time and arrive at Tbilisi International Airport at 19:00 local time, with a flight duration of approximately 10 hours and 10 minutes. Return flight MU286 departs Tbilisi at 21:00 local time and lands in Shanghai Pudong at 10:00 Beijing Time the next day, taking around 9 hours.
