Airports throughout Georgia report traffic growth for 2017

The combined traffic surged 43.4% to 4.073 million passengers (Russian Aviation Insider)

All airports of Georgia demonstrated substantial year-on-year traffic growth in 2017. They served a total of 4.074 million passengers last year, up 43.4% on 2016, the country’s civil aviation agency reports.

The airport serving Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi remained at the top of the list with 3.164 million passengers served, but its 40.4% growth rate proved the slowest. Batumi and Kutaisi demonstrated 58.7% and 49.3% growth year-on-year respectively, with 495,000 and 405,200 passengers served.

Leading the list last year was the regional airport named Princess Tamara, which serves the town of Mestia. Its traffic stood at 256,000 passengers, up 72.2% year-on-year. In 2016, Princess Tamara was the only Georgian airport which demonstrated a slide in operational results with a 5.6% decrease in traffic.

A new regional airport opened in Georgia in early 2017. Ambrolauri is initially capable of handling light aircraft, but in the future its capabilities are expected to expand. Last year it served 1,723 passengers.

The number of flights served by the country’s airports increased 12.6% to 114,600 movoments.

In 2016, the combined traffic through Georgia’s airports increased 25.7% year-on-year to 2.841 million passengers. Kutaisi led the ranking (up 48.3%), followed by Batumi (37.9%) and Tbilisi (around 22%).