Vaziani – Views on Tbilisi’s potential new airport
The Georgian government is considering relocating Tbilisi’s airport to the Vaziani airfield, currently a military site. This ambitious USD 1.2 bn project, supported by the Asian Development Bank, follows a new master plan aimed at addressing capacity constraints at the current airport, which is surrounded by challenging geography and private real estate. The new airport could more than quadruple current capacity. While preliminary work could begin as early as 2025, the contract with the current operator, TAV Georgia, means relocation wouldn’t be completed until 2028.
Critics question the ambitious passenger forecasts and express concerns about the distance and strategic aspects. However, others highlight potential benefits for the tourism sector and the possibility of a new logistics hub. Despite differing views, the need for airport expansion is widely recognised.
New master plan for Tbilisi International Airport
One of the current mega-projects under discussion in Georgia is the relocation of Tbilisi’s airport from the current location to the nearby Vaziani airfield, currently in use as a military airport. With an estimated cost in excess of a USD 1.2 bn, this is a major undertaking.
Since the spring of 2024, the government is now developing a new master plan for the new Tbilisi International Airport. This follows on the recent development of a comprehensive strategy for Georgia’s airport sector, which includes Batumi and Kutaisi as international airports, and a number of smaller airports such as Mestia and Natakthtari, to the north of Tbilisi. This planning is supported by the Asian Development Bank, one of the main partners of the Georgian government in major infrastructure projects over the last decade.
Capacity limits and geography as obstacles
Several reasons are cited in favour of relocating the Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi International Airport, as it is formally known. The current location needs to be expanded. At its busy times, the airport is reaching the limits of its capacity, which is at a maximum of 4.5 m passers per year. A relocation could more than quadruple the capacity.
Expanding in the current location is difficult, as the neighbouring area is surrounded by ravines, requiring extensive groundwork. The real estate immediately around the airport is in private hands and would be expensive to buy. While a potential expansion in the current location, budgeted at USD 900 m, would be USD 300 m cheaper than a move to Vaziani, the enlarged airport could at most serve 15 m passengers.
Contract with TAV delays relocation until 2028
A particular snag for any expansion is that the company currently managing the airport, TAV Georgia, a daughter company of the Turkish TAV company has a contract running until 2027 and is under no direct obligation to cooperate in major reconstructions before its contract is up. TAV operates Istanbul Airport, among others, and is part of the French Groupe ADP.
The relationship between the government and TAV is believed to be somewhat strained. TAV charges high landing fees, making flights to Tbilisi markedly more expensive than to many comparable destinations. From 2005 to 2007, TAV had built the current airport, and is now recouping its investment via these fees. The state-run airport of Kutaisi, a hub for the Hungarian Wizz budget airline, is 250 km away and the road passes a major mountain range. Trips to that airport typically take up to four hours.
While the government undertook not to open a new airport within 200 km of the existing airport, this obligation would end with the expiration of the contract, allowing for the construction of new facilities in Vaziani in the meantime. Preliminary work could begin as early as 2025, and the first phase of the relocation would be completed by 2028, for a capacity of 10 m passengers, to be doubled in a second phase that will be completed over the subsequent two decades.
Doubts about high passenger forecasts
Not everyone is enthusiastic about this plan. Some doubt whether the projected traveller numbers are realistic. Last year, less than 4 m travellers passed through the airport. The calculation foresees eventual passenger numbers of almost 20 m travellers per year. Peer airports at current volume of travel would be Berlin (23 m), Brussels (23 m), Stockholm (21 m) and Warsaw (19 m). All of these countries and their respective regions have a multiple of Georgia’s population. According to official statistics, Georgia received about 5.1 m visitors in 2023, compared to about 19 m in Croatia. Given these numbers, many believe that the projections are ambitious, especially considering that the future of air travel is also not certain.
Others push back to highlight that in the recent past, Georgian tourist numbers developed better than many expected. Continued growth in the Middle East and new cosmopolitan hubs such as the UAE may favour Georgia. Already now, the Caucasus is a prime destination for, say, Filipinas working in Qatar who want to see snow for the first time in their lives.
At any rate, Tbilisi Airport will remain too small to become a kind of hub. It will lack the scale to become the kind of airport where people go to catch a connecting flight. With Istanbul und Dubai, the region has these in the intermediate distance.
New airport would be further from centre
There are non-economic doubts about the relocation to Vaziani also. The current airport is a convenient 17 km or twenty minutes from Tbilisi’s central Freedom Square. The relocation would add several minutes to the travel time, as it is a further 10 km to the East, in the direction of the wine region of Kakheti. While the existing rail line never came into full operation, a trip to the centre at this point costs USD 15 in a cab, or GEL 1 (approx. USD 0.35) on the 337 bus line that travels right across town. These costs would not rise much, but distance would come at the cost of convenience.
Potential geopolitical drawbacks
At least some believe that the relocation has geopolitical drawbacks. While not an economic argument, security experts fear that giving up the main strategic military airfield would weaken the country’s defensive capacities. A live-fire training range is in the vicinity. Much had been invested into the military infrastructure, including the combat training centre of a joint NATO-Georgia facility. According to the government, the military facilities will not affect the civilian airport. However, security experts doubt whether this is possible. If new homes were needed for these facilities, this would add to the eventual relocation costs. These fears are further heightened by Beijing’s ambassador in Tbilisi expressing interest in Chinese involvement in the project.
Outlook
Whatever one’s views, people agree that some kind of expansion is necessary. Parts of the current building, completed in 2007 and expanded in 2017, are looking drab. At crunch times, queues on immigration can stretch for more than an hour. Tourism operators say that it makes little sense for them to advertise what Georgia can offer in European markets if they do not have sensible and affordable ways – direct flights – to get their guests to the country.
The future of the project may also depend on the next developments in Georgia, given the broader turbulence the country is passing through. In one regard, the relocation might be an opportunity. For years, there has been the question where to locate the logistics hub that Tbilisi so much needs. A relocation to Vaziani might offer the opportunity to locate this logistics centre right at the existing airport, where significant infrastructure already exists.