Seven new airlines are coming to Batumi International Airport, located on Georgia’s Black Sea coastline, to offer more flights and fresh routes this summer.
Scat Airlines and Skybus from Kazakhstan, EL AL Israel Airlines and Israir Airlines from Israel, Air Arabia from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bravo Airlines from Ukraine and Taban Air from Iran will carry passengers in and out of Batumi for the duration of the 2016 summer season.
In July only Batumi International Airport will receive more than 300 flights from 22 destinations.
These flights were mostly scheduled from Turkey, the UAE, Poland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Iran and Russia.
Statistics showed in the first five months of 2016 Batumi International Airport served 54,429 passengers, which was a 32.95 percent increase year-on-year (y/y).
In total 788 flights were performed at Batumi International Airport between January-May 2016. This figure was 34.9 percent more compared to same period of 2015, when 584 flights were performed.
To attract more tourists from abroad, Georgia launched active public and marketing campaigns in 11 countries this year, while in 2012 such campaigns were held in only three countries.
As a result this year two new Kazakh airlines started flying to Batumi, while last year there were no flights between Kazakhstan and Batumi at all.