Sukhumi airport to open no later than December 31, 2024

The rebuilt Sukhumi airport in Abkhazia will open no later than December 31, 2024. But the name of the Russian investor, who is ready to invest 8 billion rubles [about $84 million] in reconstruction, is still unknown.

It is planned that technical flights at the airport will begin in July 2024, and by December it will be fully operational. According to President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania, the only circumstance that could prevent the realization of the project is if “hostilities in different states acquire a different scale”.

The contract with the investor has already been signed, and Bzhania promises to reveal his name later, within a month.

According to the contract, the airfield and the airfield structure remain state property and will be transferred to the investor only on lease.

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The only civilian airport in Abkhazia named after Vladislav Ardzinba has not been open for 30 years, since the end of the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-93. Today Russian tourists can get to Abkhazia only through Sochi.

Since the International Civil Aviation Organization (IKAO) will not issue a license to Abkhazia, continuing to consider it a part of Georgia, Sukhumi airport will not have international status. Only airlines from Russia will be able to fly there.

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