On 21 October 2016, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Dimitri Kumsishvili, spoke about the increased number of passengers coming to Georgia and made the following statement to the media: "Passenger flow through Georgia’s airports this year has increased by 23% as compared to 2015 and by 103% as compared to 2012."
FactCheckverified the accuracy of the statement.
Dimitri Kumsishvili named the data of the first nine months of 2016 and compared them to the data of the same periods of the previous year and 2012. According to the information of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, a total of 2,208,281 passengers passed through Georgia’s airports by the end of the third quarter of 2016 which is 24.6% more as compared to the same period of the previous year. As for the first nine months of 2015, a total of 1,771,650 passengers were registered as having passed through the country’s airports. In regard to 2012, passenger flow in the first three quarters was 1,061,222 which is 108% less as compared to the same period of 2016. According to the official data, passenger flow through Georgia’s international airports is increasing annually. Of note is that this kind of trend was in place under the previous government as well.
Chart 1:
Volume of Passenger Flow through Georgia’s International Airports
| 9 Months | Total Amount | |||
| Years | Amount | % Change | Amount | % Change |
| 2016 | 2,208,281 | 25% | ||
| 2015 | 1,771,650 | 13% | 2,255,002 | 13% |
| 2014 | 1,564,179 | 13% | 1,993,813 | 10% |
| 2013 | 1,385,477 | 31% | 1,808,622 | 30% |
| 2012 | 1,061,222 | 20% | 1,391,561 | 19% |
| 2011 | 887,016 | 30% | 1,169,888 | 28% |
| 2010 | 684,833 | 916,263 | ||
Tbilisi International Airport is the busiest in terms of passenger flow. Throughout 2015, a total of 1.88 million passengers used the facility which is 81% of the total number of passengers travelling through all of Georgia’s airports (see FactCheck’s research
about this topic). After Tbilisi International Airport, the second busiest airport is Kutaisi’s David the Builder Airport which served 183,804 passengers in total. Batumi International Airport is in the third place with 183,370 passengers. Of note is that Kutaisi International Airport, which became functional only three years ago, managed to have the same passenger flow as Batumi International Airport owing to the low-cost international airlines and their expanding services based out of Kutaisi.
Conclusion
According to the official statistics of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, the figures named by Dimitri Kumsishvili correspond to the reality. Moreover, in fact, the growth of the flow of passengers as compared to the previous year (24.6% more) and 2012 (108% more) is even greater than the figures named by Mr Kumsishvili. Of note is that according to the first nine months of 2016, Georgia’s airports transported the same number of passengers (2.2 million) as in 2015. Based on statistical data, we can say that the flow of passengers has been increasing annually, including the period under the previous government.
Considering the existing information, FactCheck concludes that Dimitri Kumsishvili’s statement is TRUE.
