Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Alexander Kartveli Batumi International Airport is Georgia's principal Black Sea gateway, sited on the right bank of the Chorokhi river a short distance south of the city of Batumi. It offers a single long, lit hard-surfaced runway and handles a substantial mix of international and domestic scheduled traffic, making it an interesting and useful destination for simulator pilots flying the Caucasus and eastern Black Sea region.
Batumi International Airport, named after the aeronautical engineer and aviation pioneer Alexander Kartveli, serves the coastal city of Batumi, capital of the autonomous republic of Adjara in southwest Georgia. It is one of three international airports in the country, alongside Tbilisi and Kutaisi, and is operated with investment from TAV Airports Holding. For a sim pilot the field is notable for its single very long runway set against the dramatic backdrop of the Black Sea coast and the mountains inland, along with a genuinely busy and varied international route network for an airport of its size.
The airport lies on the right bank of the Chorokhi river, about 2 km south of Batumi and some 20 km northeast of Hopa across the border in Turkey. It sits on the Black Sea coast at the southwestern edge of Georgia, close to the Turkish border, placing it near the southern limits of Georgian airspace.
Batumi has a single physical runway, 13/31, 8,163 ft long with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS at the field.
The tower frequency is 120 MHz.
The Chorokhi river, on whose right bank the airport sits, and the Black Sea coastline immediately to the west are the principal natural landmarks for locating the field. Mtirala mountain lies to the northeast of Batumi and is a notable high terrain feature to be aware of on approaches from that quarter.
The current terminal opened on 26 May 2007, Georgia's Independence Day, with investment from TAV Airports Holding, and a sculpture at the entrance commemorates Fadiko Gogitidze, Adjara's first woman pilot. On 25 October 2000 an Il-18 aircraft, registration RA-74295, crashed into Mtirala mountain northeast of Batumi while on final approach, killing all 84 people on board; the accident was attributed to a navigation error by the crew and a lack of control by air traffic services. Passenger numbers grew significantly after the 2007 renovation, and the terminal was further expanded between 2019 and its completion in spring 2021, doubling its area to around 8,000 square metres and increasing capacity to 1.2 million passengers a year at a cost of some USD 17 million.
Batumi International Airport today handles a wide range of international and domestic scheduled services, connecting Batumi to destinations across Europe, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Central Asia, alongside domestic flights to Tbilisi. It is a busy, commercially operated large airport rather than a general aviation field.