| Tbilisi International Airport თბილისის საერთაშორისო აეროპორტი |
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| IATA: TBS – ICAO: UGTB
TBS
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | United Airports of Georgia LLC | ||
| Operator | TAV Airports Holding | ||
| Serves | Tbilisi | ||
| Location | Tbilisi | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,624 ft / 495 m | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 13R/31L | 3,000 | 9,843 | Concrete |
| 13L/31R | 2,500 | 8,202 | Asphalt/Concrete |
| Helipads | |||
| Number | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| H1 | 30 | 98 | Asphalt/Concrete |
| Source: Georgian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1] | |||
Tbilisi International Airport (Georgian: თბილისის საერთაშორისო აეროპორტი) (IATA: TBS, ICAO: UGTB) is the main international airport in Georgia, located 17 km (11 mi) southeast[1] of the capital Tbilisi.
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In February 2007, the reconstruction project was finished. The project consisted of construction of a new international terminal, car park, improvements to the apron, taxiway and runway and acquisition of ground handling equipment at Tbilisi International Airport. A rail link to the city centre has been constructed. There is an infrequent rail service to the city centre of Tbilisi (6 trains per day in each direction). George W. Bush Avenue leads from the airport to downtown Tbilisi.[2]
The airport is a product of a contemporary and functional design, boasting high technology. It is designed to provide the optimum flow of both passengers and luggage from the parking lot to the planes with a 25,000 square meter total usable area. It has the ability and flexibility to easily facilitate future expansions without interrupting terminal operations. It has been fitted with high-tech contemporary systems, keeping passenger convenience and efficiency of the terminal operations in mind, throughout functional spaces organized in an elegant manner. The Food and Beverage operations at the Tbilisi International Airport are carried out by BTA at 7 points with a staff of 75, while ATU provides Duty Free services at its four stores.[3]
The implementing agency and the borrower for the project is TAV Urban Georgia, a concessionaire and SPV for the construction and operation of Tbilisi International Airport.
The total project cost was 90.5 million USD. The capacity of the new terminal building is 2.8 million passengers per year.[3]
In 2007, the airport handled 615,873 passengers, representing an increase of 8.5 % over 2006.[4] The number of aircraft movements increased by 18.7%.[5] In 2009, the airport handled 702,373 passengers and 12,245 tonnes of cargo, in 2010 it handled 820,000 passengers.[6]
2007-615,873 2009-702,373 2010-820,000 2011-1,000,000 and over.
Many international airlines now operate from Tbilisi, connecting the capital of Georgia to some of the world's most important cities, including Amsterdam, Athens, Almaty, Dubai, Doha, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Vienna and Warsaw. This also allows passengers flying to or departing from Georgia to benefit from the choice of additional destinations offered by the large European transit airlines who serve Tbilisi from their hubs.
Negotiations are being held with French and German companies in order to rehabilitate the old runway 13L/31R. The rehabilitation will enable the airport to have two operational runways.
The first airport terminal building was constructed in 1952. Designed by the architect V. Beridze in the style of Stalinist architecture the building featured a floor plan with symmetric axes and a monumental risalit in the form of a portico. The two side wings featured blind arcades in giant order. A new terminal building was finished in 1990, designed in the International style.[7] In 1981 Tbilisi airport was the twelfth largest airport in the Soviet Union, with 1,478,000 passengers on so-called central lines, that is on flights connecting Tbilisi with cities in other union republics.[8] In 1998 the number of passenger had shrunk to 230,000 per year.[9]
Tbilisi airport mainly serves destinations in the former Soviet Union and Europe. Due to the strained Georgian-Russian relations only six flights per week between Tbilisi and Moscow-Domodedovo are permitted on a charter basis.[10] The Georgian government is negotiating with several airlines in the hope to increase the number of destinations. These airlines include Wizz Air[11], Ryanair[12] and Air France.
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aerosvit Airlines | Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev-Boryspil, Odessa |
| Air Astana | Almaty |
| airBaltic | Riga |
| Arkia Israel Airlines | Seasonal: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion |
| Azerbaijan Airlines | Baku |
| Belavia | Minsk |
| bmi | London-Heathrow |
| China Southern Airlines | Urumqi[13] |
| Czech Airlines | Prague |
| Estonian Air | Tallinn [begins 8 April] |
| Flydubai | Dubai |
| Georgian Airways | Amsterdam, Athens, Batumi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kharkiv, Kiev-Boryspil, Minsk, Moscow-Domodedovo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riga, Tehran, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Vienna Seasonal: Antalya, Baku, Donetsk, Odessa, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Hurghada |
| Kenn Borek Air | Mestia |
| LOT Polish Airlines | Warsaw |
| Lufthansa | Munich |
| Mega Aircompany | Almaty |
| Pegasus Airlines | Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Seasonal: Antalya |
| Qatar Airways | Baku [begins 1 February], Doha [begins 1 February] |
| S7 Airlines | Moscow-Domodedovo |
| SCAT | Aktau, Astana |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk |
| Ukraine International Airlines | Kiev-Boryspil |
| Ural Airlines | Yekaterinburg |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Cairo | Hurghada, Sharm el sheikh |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Cargolux | Luxembourg[14] |
| Coyne Airways[15] | Aktau, Ashgabat, Atyrau, Baku, Cologne/Bonn, London-Stansted, Türkmenbaşy, Yerevan |
| Silk Way Airlines | Baku |
| Turkish Airlines Cargo | Istanbul |
| Global Supply Systems | London |
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