Kutaisi International Airport also known as David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport is an airport located west of Kutaisi, the third largest city in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and capital of the western region of

Imereti Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 munic ...

. It is one of three international airports currently in operation in Georgia, along with

Tbilisi International Airport Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi International Airport ( ka, თბილისის შოთა რუსთაველის სახელობის საერთაშორისო აეროპორტი) , formerly ''Novo Alexeyevka In ...

serving the Georgian capital and

Batumi International Airport Alexander Kartveli Batumi International Airport is an airport located south of Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. The airport is northeast of Hopa, Turkey, and serves as ...

near the Adjara

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

resort. The airport is operated by

United Airports of Georgia United Airports of Georgia LLC ( Georgian language საქართველოს აეროპორტების გაერთიანება) is a state-owned company in Georgia established in 2011, functioning under the Ministry ...

, a state-owned company.

History

The airport was closed for renovation in November 2011. Its reopening ceremony was held on 27 September 2012. It was attended by President of Georgia

Mikheil Saakashvili Mikheil Saakashvili ( ka, მიხეილ სააკაშვილი ; uk, Міхеіл Саакашвілі ; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist.

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between ...

and

Wizz Air Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as s ...

CEO József Váradi. For preparation works, for the commissioning of the airport and training of staff, the French company Vinci Airports was contracted. There is one

duty-free shop A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, wh ...

and two coffee shops operating at the airport. The airport is currently connected to scheduled buses operated by Georgian Bus and Omnibus Express , with services to Kutaisi, Tbilisi and Batumi after each arrival. The airport terminal is located next to the main road between Kutaisi and Batumi, so it is possible to transfer to those cities also by

marshrutka ''Marshrutka''low-cost airlines A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

. A significant growth in the number of passenger has been noted soon after the reopening of the airport in 2012, mainly due to Wizz Air operations linking Kutaisi with European airports. For 2013, the airport reported 187,939 passengers. In February 2016,

announced a new base at Kutaisi Airport and is planning to add a second base in 2018. Currently, major expansion works of the airport are underway as the airport is expecting 1 million passengers in 2020. A plan to build a railway station in the vicinity of the airport which would connect the airport to

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of t ...

and any other cities of Georgia served by Georgian Railways was announced in 2018. In April 2022 the modernization of the Kopitnari station was finished.

History

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Passenger figures

Busiest routes

See also

References

External links