The FINANCIAL — “During the 8 months of 2009, 230,084 passengers departed from Georgia for abroad. The number of arrivals during the same period was 220,950 passengers. From the total figures of arrival customers 110,427 passengers entered Georgia during the summer of 2009,” Teona Tabidze, PR and Customer Relations Manager of TAV Urban Georgia LLC, Tbilisi International Airport, told The FINANCIAL.
The total number of international departures in 2008 was 364,143 passengers. As for international arrival, the figure stands at 346,023 passengers.
Tabidze says that during 2008-2009, TAV Urban Georgia have not increased taxes.
“Tbilisi Airport does its best to immunize itself against failure and is continuing to perform as efficiently as possible,” Tabidze says.
“We continue to focus on the service the airport is providing to stay competitive. If the number of passengers will rise, we are hoping for another good year and that is about focusing on what the passenger need and building on that quality of service. Passengers want that and we have to make sure they come back here once they’ve flown with us once,” Tabidze notes.
Tabidze failed to explain the reason for one of the most frequent complaints of passengers which is that sometimes the percent of taxes is equal to a ticket’s price and therefore sharply raises the cost that customers need to pay.
TAV Urban Georgia LLC, TAV Georgia, holds an 11.5-year concession, from January 2006, from the Tbilisi International Airport Joint Stock Company to design, finance, construct, maintain, and operate Tbilisi International Airport (TIA). TAV Georgia has the option to extend the concession period by an additional five years by designing, constructing and financing but not operating the upgrade of the Batumi International Airport for approximately USD 15 million.
Total project cost of TIA was USD 77 million.
EBRD launched a senior loan of USD USD 25.9 million to TAV Urban Georgia.
The project was co-financed with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) who provided a senior loan of USD 27 million.
TAV Georgia is jointly owned by four Turkish companies: Tepe İnşaat Sanayi A.Ş, Tepe, Akfen İnşaat Turizm ve Ticaret A.Ş, Akfen and Urban Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Urban, with 30% each and Sera Yapı Endüstrisi ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti, Sera, a private investment company, holding the balance 10%.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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