Civil aviation is slowly but for certain growing in Republic of Georgia. There were in total four airports in Georgia in 2016. Tbilisi International Airport, Kutaisi David the Builder International Airport, Batumi International Airport and Mestia Queen Tamara Airport.
As a frequent air traveler I have used two of Georgian airports very often, Tbilisi airport and Kutaisi airport, I have been at Batumi airport but never have flied from there and I haven't yet ever been to Mestia airport, thus I once almost booked a flight from Tbilisi to Mestia. Read more: Flights to Mestia from Tbilisi will resume starting July 18th by Service Air
Now, the biggest miracle of these four airports have been Kutaisi airport, opened for public just at the end of 2012, mainly served by low cost airlines - Wizz Air. Just recently Wizz Air announced it will use Kutaisi as its base and will open seven new routes to mainland Europe (Germany, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria) from here. So I decided to see how passenger statistics have changed over last couple of years. Back at then end of October 2013 I did my first examination of statistics - see: Statistics about Georgian airports 2010-2012
My finding at the end of 2013 were following:
My future forecasts is that Kutaisi airport will became second largest soon, this or next year, by outperforming Batumi airport. Why such confidence? In 6 month period (Jan-Jully, 2013) Kutaisi airport has served already 141 844 passengers, and they are adding more flights to and from Kutaisi in future.
It is time to see were my forecasts right or false.
Data used in bellow tables are from: Georgian Civil Aviation Agency
Numbers of passengers served in Tbilisi airport (2010-2015)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Growth from previous year |
| 822,728 | 1,058,482 | 1,219,175 | 1,436,046 | 1,575,327 | 1,847,111 | 271,784 [ ~ 17.25%] |
by regular and chartered flights
Tbilisi airport has reported some serious year on year growth for the last five years, in 2015 serving about 1,85 million passengers what is about a ~17% growth if compared to previous year of 2014.
It wouldn't be a surprise seeing Tbilisi serving 2 million passengers in 2016.
Numbers of passengers served in Kutaisi David the Builder International Airport (2010-2015)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Growth from previous year |
| 7,446 | 4,527 | 12,932 | 187,939 | 218,003 | 182,954 | -35,049 [ ~ -16.08%] |
2015 has shown a dip in passenger traffic in Kutaisi airport by about 16%.. Frankly speaking I was looking for much greater growth rates in Kutaisi airport, but previous 2 years have showed stable around 200,000 passengers annually. Probably the new routes which will be opened later this year will boost again passenger count in Kutaisi?
Numbers of passengers served in Batumi International Airport (2010-2015)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Growth from previous year |
| 88,562 | 133,852 | 168,510 | 208,937 | 213,841 | 226,476 | 12,635 [ ~ 5.91%] |
Batumi seems haven't lost it's second largest Georgian airport title, served 226 thousands passengers in 2015
Numbers of passengers served in Mestia Queen Tamara Airport (2010-2015)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Growth from previous year |
| 45 | 4,580 | 2,922 | 885 | 1,343 | 4,465 | 3,122 [ ~ 232.46%] |
Mestia is the smallest airport in Georgia, nothing much to comment here, yet.
Numbers of passengers served in all Georgian airports (2010-2015)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Growth from previous year |
| 918,781 | 1,201,441 | 1,403,538 | 1,833,807 | 2,008,171 | 2,261,006 | 252,835 [ ~ 12.59%] |
The total passenger traffic growth over the last five years are pretty much incredible. All four Georgian airports combined have increased total number of passengers from less than a million in 2010 to more than 2 millions in 2015. Which means just one - civil aviation in Georgia is on fast track. Any forecasts? 4 million and more passengers by the end of decade in all Georgian airports combined.