Passenger traffic of Georgian Airports was 84% down in 2020 equaling to the data of 2010.
According to the statistics requested by AviaNews from the Civil Aviation Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Georgian airports served a total of 833,846 passengers with regular and irregular flights in 2020. While in 2019, the airports served 5,209,466 passengers, so the decrease amounted to 83.99%.
The passenger number of 2020 is 83.46% down comparing to 2018.
In recent years, the Georgian air market has been attractive for the airlines, as it has been named one of the best tourist destinations, and consequently, the country has seen a significant increase in foreign tourists. The Georgian air market was also attractive to airlines due to its liberal aviation policy.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on preventing the spread of the virus have reduced the passenger traffic to Georgia, as the country was forced to close its airspace for regular flights on March 21, 2020. The forced shutdown lasted several months amid the spread of the virus. Starting of regular flights is carried out in stages and obviously the passenger flow is also decreased.
Statistics of Passenger Traffic by Georgian airports for the recent years are as follows:
2018 - 5 040 573 passengers,
2019 - 5 209 466 passengers,
2020 - 833 846 passengers.
In 2020, Tbilisi International Airport served 590 123 passengers, which is 84.02% less comparing to 2019 (3692136 passengers).
Passenger traffic at Kutaisi International Airport is 78.95% down. In 2020, Kutaisi International Airport served 183,873 passengers, while in 2019 - 873,616 passengers.
51,412 passengers were transferred through Batumi International Airport, which is 91.76% less than the passenger flow carried by the airport in 2019. In 2019, Batumi International Airport served 624,151 passengers.
As for the local airports, Mestia served 3,165 passengers in the last year, which is 5,460 passengers or 63.30% less comparing to the number of passengers transported in the same period of 2019. Ambrolauri Airport received 1,214 passengers in the past twelve months, which is 752 passengers less (38.25%) than the number of passengers served in the same period of 2019.
A total of 7,133 flights were operated at Georgian airports in 2020. Including, the number of regular flights amounted to 3,495, while the number of charter flights was 3,638. The number of passengers was 70.75% down in 2020 comparing to 2019.
