Passenger traffic in Georgia up 565% in Q1 2022

Turkish Airlines is the leader in the Georgian aviation market based on the number of passengers transported in the past three months of 2022, and is followed by the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air, with both airlines having 13 percent market shares, the CAAG said. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

Agenda.ge, 12 Apr 2022 - 16:47, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgian airports have served 700,200 passengers in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 565 percent compared to the same period of last year, and a 69 percent recovery from the pre-pandemic figure in 2019, the Civil Aviation Agency announced on Tuesday. 

A total of 3,978 flights were held at Georgian airports in the reported period, with the number of regular flights equalling 2,996 and the figure for charter flights totalling 982. This marks a 207 percent increase compared to the number of flights in the corresponding period of 2021, and a 76.5 percent recovery compared to 2019, CAAG revealed. 

In the first three months of 2022 Georgian airports served:

  • Tbilisi International Airport - 507,050  passengers (+407%)
  • Kutaisi International Airport - 121,470 passengers (+37,047%)
  • Batumi International Airport - 68,474 passengers (+1,635%)

Passenger flow also increased in local airports of the country, with the number of passengers increasing by 307 per cent for the northern highland Mestia Airport compared to last year and exceeding the figure from 2019 by 13 percent.

Service at the Ambrolauri Airport in the west also increased by 153 percent year-on-year, posting a 43 percent growth compared to 2019. Natakhtari Airport on the outskirts of Georgia's capital of Tbilisi also posted an increase in 2019 and 2021 of 17 percent and 234 percent respectively. 

Georgian local airports served:

  • Mestia Airport - 1,407 passengers
  • Ambrolauri Airport - 278 passengers
  • Natakhtari Airport - 1,521 passengers

The volume of cargo transported by air amounted to 4,483,077 tonnes in the first quarter of this year, posting an increase of three percent year-on-year.

Turkish Airlines is the leader in the Georgian aviation market based on the number of passengers transported in the past three months of 2022, and is followed by the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air, with both airlines having 13 percent market shares, the CAAG said.