Tbilisi is the gateway to Georgia and a convenient base for Caucasus routes. What distinguishes the destination is the combination of a compact country with real variety: sea, mountains and wine regions all lie within a short flight or a couple of hours by road. Below we cover the airport, routes and practice.
The airport
Tbilisi International (TBS/UGTB) lies about 17 kilometres southeast of the city centre and accepts all the main business-aviation classes. The ground transfer to the centre takes around 20–25 minutes on a clear road.
The country's further fields are Batumi (BUS/UGSB) on the Black Sea coast and Kutaisi (KUT/UGKO) in the west. Batumi is especially in demand in summer, when the flow shifts to the sea.
Routes and flight times
Tbilisi is linked by short legs across the region: Baku is about 45 minutes, Yerevan around 40 minutes, Istanbul about 2 hours, Moscow around 2 hours 30 minutes, Dubai about 3 hours.
For longer routes: London around 5 hours 30 minutes, Almaty about 3 hours 45 minutes, Tashkent around 3 hours 15 minutes. Regional legs are covered by light and midsize jets.
Domestic flights are short: Tbilisi to Batumi is around 45 minutes against five to six hours by road. For a country of that size it is a rare case where aviation delivers a real gain within its own borders.
Why people fly here
The first scenario is business: Georgia is developing its financial and tourism sectors, and simplified visa arrangements for many countries make trips administratively easy. The second is tourism: old Tbilisi, the sulphur baths, Kakheti with its wineries an hour and a half by road.
The third is mountains: Gudauri and Mestia in winter, with some points quicker to reach by helicopter than by mountain road. The fourth is the sea: Batumi in summer as a destination in its own right.
Practical planning
The country's civil aviation is regulated by the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency, registration prefix 4L-. Georgia has four operators holding their own air operator certificate, so a significant share of flights is operated by aircraft from neighbouring countries — Azerbaijan, Türkiye, the UAE. Positioning takes from forty minutes to three hours and is built into the quote.
Permits are arranged through a ground agent. Tbilisi airport is flexible outside peak dates: slots are available, parking is not scarce. In summer the load on Batumi rises and planning there needs more margin.
Choosing an aircraft
Tbilisi imposes effectively no aircraft-type restrictions, so range from the departure point and passenger count decide. Regional legs are served by light and midsize jets; arrivals from Europe and the Gulf need heavy aircraft.
JetHunter provides access to more than 5,000 aircraft and a catalogue of 246 models with range maps. For Georgian routes, sourcing accounts for positioning and, on multi-city programmes, the short internal legs between Tbilisi and the coast.
«Georgia is compact enough that the sea and the mountains are both under an hour's flying from the capital. It is a rare situation where domestic flights make sense in a country of that size.»
— Alexey Mordvintsev, CEO of JetHunter
Author: Alexey Mordvintsev, CEO of JetHunter, President of the Association of Professionals of Executive Aviation Industry (APIDA). Over 14 years in the industry.