The FINANCIAL — The operator company of Tbilisi and Batumi international airports TAV Georgia, has received a Golden Brand award and been named the No1 Company in the nomination category of Transport and Service.
TAV Georgia received its first Golden Brand back in 2010.
Golden Brand is the primary award for businesses and projects favoured by experts and consumers in Georgia.
“This is our third Golden Brand award, which proves that TAV Georgia has been providing high quality service for years already,” said Mete Erkal, General Manager of TAV Georgia.
“The year 2017 was quite successful for Tbilisi as well as Batumi international airports. Passenger traffic increased in both airports, new air companies launched flights and introduced new routes, increasing the frequency of their flights. This all happened thanks to the right management policy and high standard service of TAV Georgia,” he added.
TAV Airports Holding has the right to operate Tbilisi and Batumi international airports until the year 2027. TAV Georgia is an affiliate of the global brand in the field of aviation – TAV Airports. The main shareholder of TAV Airports is ADP Group (Airport de Paris), holding 47% of its shares. The total services provided by the company cover 78 airports in 19 countries, serving more than 245 million passengers in them annually.
Q. The number of tourists visiting Georgia is on the rise. A country’s airport makes a first impression for tourists. In your opinion do Georgian airports meet EU standards and what impression do they give visitors to the country?
A. TAV Georgia gained a number of international recognitions during these 13 years thanks to the infrastructural development and innovative projects that TAV Georgia implemented in Tbilisi and Batumi international airports.
For example, at Skytrax World Airport Awards 2018 held in Stockholm, Tbilisi International Airport was named among the top ten airports in Eastern Europe for the fifth year in a row.
From the results of surveys of air-travellers – the international airports of Budapest, Tallinn, Kiev-Boryspil, Bucharest, Riga, Belgrade, Tbilisi, Bratislava, Sofia and Skopje have been named the 10 best airports of Eastern Europe of 2018. The Skytrax World Airport Awards is based on 13 million customer nominations across 106 nationalities of air travellers, and includes 550 airports worldwide. The survey evaluates customer satisfaction across 39 key performance indicators for airport service and product.
Q. What were the recent developments at Tbilisi and Batumi international airports?
A. Important infrastructural projects were implemented in Tbilisi International Airport in 2016-2017 years. In the scope of infrastructure development project of Tbilisi International Airport, TAV Georgia implemented rehabilitation project of the existing Runway and Taxiways; in 2017
New Arrivals terminal was opened. With departure and arrival terminals Tbilisi International Airport will serve 4 million passengers annually. Five new airplane parking spaces were added to the airport and also new parking area for cars that can room 250 vehicles. In this projects TAV Georgia invested USD 60 million.
As for Batumi International Airport, there TAV Georgia arranged new registration desks. Also, new passport control booths are added to the arrivals area as well as the departures hall. At this very moment Batumi airport can accommodate 10 different types of airplanes at the same time now as their parking space has been expanded.
Q. You mentioned investments. Could you please tell us how much TAV Georgia has invested in total in the development of Georgian airports recently?
A. Georgia is the first country where TAV Holding implemented an international project back in 2005. Having received an investment worth over 180 million USD in Georgia, new passenger terminals of Tbilisi and Batumi airports were commissioned in 2007. Thanks to the multimillion investment made by TAV Airports in many different countries, long term experience in airport operations and efficient management TAV Georgia has become one of the most reliable, stable and dynamic companies in Georgia. As of today 1,300 people are employed at TAV Georgia.
Q. How much have the number of passengers increased at Tbilisi and Batumi airports?
With the efficient management of TAV Georgia every year passenger numbers in Tbilisi and Batumi International Airports are increasing. For the last three years the passenger number has increased more than 100%, which is a record increase all around the world. This achievement is a result of reasonable and feasible airport charges as well as strong marketing strategy.
A. Tbilisi and Batumi international airports served 1,437,060 passengers in the first five months of 2018, which is a 33% increase year-on-year (y/y).
More specifically, Tbilisi International Airport served 1,327,544 passengers – a 32 percent increase y/y, while Batumi International Airport served 109,516 passengers – a 51 percent increase.
As for the year 2017, Tbilisi International Airport alone served 3,164,275 passengers last year, which was a 40% increase y/y.
Batumi International Airport served 495,704 passengers in 2017 – a 59% increase y/y.
Q. What new flights and routes have been introduced at Tbilisi and Batumi airports?
A. The number of new air companies entering Georgia is on the rise. As of today 51 companies perform flights at Tbilisi airport to 55 destinations.
Meanwhile, in Batumi 20 airline companies perform flights to 22 different destinations.
This year new Georgian airline My Way, Iran Air, Kuwait Airways, Jazeera Airways, and Salam Air entered the Georgian market. These air companies perform flights from Tbilisi.
For summer season in Batumi two air companies have been added. These companies are UVT Aero and Pobeda Airlines.
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