On September 9, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili's alleged use of a government aircraft to travel himself and his family to the United States caused a scandal.

The full flight path of the government aircraft was obtained by the pro-opposition TV Pirveli journalist team, confirming that the aircraft, which Irakli Garibashvili used on August 19 for private travel while on vacation, belonged to the Georgian government and was operated by the "Georgian Airways" airline. Tamaz Gaiashvili, the head of Georgian Airways, employs both pilots and flight attendants. Gaiashvili told TV Pirveli that Garibashivli took a Georgian Airways flight to Munich, Germany. He also revealed to the TV Pirveli investigating team that Anzor Chubinidze of the Special State Protection Service had given him the order to fly the Prime Minister to Munich and then transport him there.

The government's Startcom revised its claims, asserting that Garibashvili had landed in Europe on a charter flight and then taken a regular trip to the United States after inquiries regarding how precisely the Prime Minister chartered a flight to that country.

On September 10, the Strategic Communications Service of the Government of Georgia rejected reports by the TV Pirveli channel. In the statement, the Service claimed the channel had deliberately spread false information to mislead the public. It noted that the flight carrying the PM to Munich was commercial, and budgetary funds were not used for the trip or any other purposes in the private visit. It stressed that Anzor Chubinidze, the Head of the Special State Protection Service of Georgia, had previously explained that the flight was commercial and its costs were not reimbursed from the state budget, with the media outlet deliberately omitting the information to mislead the public. The department further noted that the plane on which the PM traveled to Munich was on the balance of the Special State Protection Service and said the agency had been fully authorized to receive incomes from Governmental and budgetary structures, as well as from non-governmental, commercial, and private individuals, adding similar commercial flights had been performed earlier, in several occasions.

On September 11, Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said it was a deliberate campaign of lies. "First, it was reported that the Prime Minister had used a state [owned] plane for a personal visit and had spent budget funds on it. Then they found out that it was not a budget expense, and we declare with full responsibility that not a single cent from the budget was spent," Kaladze said. "However, we remember the period when such flights were carried out under [the former] President Saakashvili's rule, [his] lovers were financed with certain gifts with the budget [money], [his] son’s studies were financed from the budget while it was presented as if Mikheil Saakashvili had a talented son," he accused Saakashvili.