The government of Georgia has decided to construct a new airport in Tbilisi, announced the country’s Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze. “An economic council meeting was held where we made a crucial decision to implement a new mega-project. Specifically, a new international airport will be built in Tbilisi,” he said on Monday in an interview with 1tv.ge.
According to the Prime Minister, the government considered two project options. “One involved expanding the existing airport, while the other proposed constructing a new airport in Vaziani (a settlement 25 km from Tbilisi). The expansion was estimated at around $900 million, while the construction of a new airport amounts to approximately $1.26 billion,” he noted.
Kobakhidze clarified that the current capacity of Tbilisi Airport is up to 4.5 million passengers per year. “Expansion could increase passenger traffic to a maximum of 15 million passengers with no further development prospects. As for the construction of a new airport, it allows us to increase the number of passengers to 19 million with the prospect of further expansion,” he explained.
“Taking everything into account, we have decided to proceed with the construction of a new airport. The design and tender procedures will be completed next year, and in a few years, the country will have a completely new, state-of-the-art airport. This is the most important decision,” emphasized the Prime Minister.
He mentioned that due to the implementation of the airport construction investment project, “economic growth will increase by 0.2 percentage points, which means that over the next few years, an average of 350 million lari (over $130 million at the current exchange rate) will be added to Georgia’s economy, which is crucial for our economic development.”
“The new airport will fully comply with the highest modern standards,” added Kobakhidze.
