Does the airport work in Sukhumi? Airports of Abkhazia. The whole history of the country on the example of one airport

The airport of Sukhum (Sukhumi) is located near the village of Babushara, Gulrypsh district of Abkhazia. The distance from the airport to the capital of Abkhazia is 18 kilometers.

Airport Status

The length of the runway (3.6 km) allows the airport to accept almost all types of civil aircraft. In the Soviet period, the terminal served up to 5 thousand passengers per day.

Since 2010, the airport has been calledin honor of the first president of the Republic of Abkhazia -  Sukhum International Airport V.G. Ardzinba.   The former name of the airport is Babushara.

FROM according to the legislation of Georgia, which considers Abkhazia as its territory, Abkhazia is closed to international flights. The International Civil Aviation Organization has decided not to give the airport in Sukhum international status.

History

Sukhum Airport was built in the mid-1960s.

In September 1993, during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, the Georgian authorities used the Babushara airport to evacuate refugees and support their troops besieged in Sukhum.  At the same time, civilian liners were involved.

During that period, Abkhaz forces destroyed five civilian airliners, including one from Adler:

In the post-war years, the airport was used only for flights within the republic, as well as by the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Force in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone and the UN Observer Mission in Georgia.

During the August events of 2008 in South Ossetia, the Sukhumi airport received dozens of transport aircraft of the Russian Air Force. The first civilian foreign plane to land in Babushary in the post-war years in September 2008 was the plane of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Then, in 2009, the Sukhumi airport hosted the boards of the State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

In 2010, the President of Abkhazia, Sergey Bagapsh, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, said: “We are currently working at the Sukhumi airport and will be putting it in order. But so far, flights will be carried out only to Russia. It’s almost ready technically. The strip is good there. It’s under construction under the Buran program as a backup. The airport is almost all-weather, aircraft are approaching from both sides of the runway ... "

Reconstruction

Since 2011, Sukhumi airport has been preparing for reconstruction.

President of AbkhaziaRaul Khadjimba in an interview with the "Caucasian Knot"   On November 4, 2014, when asked about the possibility of reconstructing the airport, he replied that this project was not “cheap”, but a “Russian-Abkhaz company” would be engaged in it. “The other day we met with potential investors who are ready to join this project. They must conduct appropriate calculations of the necessary funds that will be invested in the airport,” Khajimba said.

On November 14, 2014, the Government of Abkhazia agreed on the reconstruction of the airport   with the leadership of the company "Airport Development", which is part of Oleg Deripaska's industrial group "Basic Element". (TObasel Aero ownsn the most significant airports in the south of Russia.) C the torons signed an agreement of intent for cooperation.

On November 25, 2014, the Prime Minister of Abkhazia Beslan Butba announced that Sukhumi airport would be transferred to the management of the Russian company. At the same time, Butba specified:"The runway and scheduling will remain with the state, the rest will be given to the Russian company, we are now working to find a structure that would take on this."

The cost of reconstruction of the airport, the head of the State Administration of Abkhazia for Transport, Zaur Khadzhimba, estimated at 1 billion rubles, and named May 2016 as a preliminary deadline for completion of work. At the same time, Z. Khadzhimba noted that the reconstruction project will still be discussed. "The situation is rather slippery - it is not clear what passenger traffic there will be in months, except for 2-3 months of the summer season," he said.

Notes:

1. The government adopted a resolution on perpetuating the memory of the first President of the Republic of Armenia Vladislav Ardzinba // Apsnypress, 04.16.10.
2. The crash of Tu-154 in Sukhumi // Kommersant, 09.24.1993.
3. Aviation Safety Network.
4. Abkhazia is preparing to open air links with Russia // Voice of America, 06/07/2010.
5. Buran - Soviet space shuttle. Starting weight - 105 tons.
6. President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh: “We work in the range between Russia and Nauru” // Komsomolskaya Pravda, 03/27/2010.

Tourists who dream of visiting this wonderful region often wonder what are the existing airports of Abkhazia and how to get from them to their destination? To prepare the trip, many vacationers study the route before departure, make a travel plan. - an amazing world, these are excellent resorts, beaches, the sun, beautiful nature, many historical sights.

The name Babushara came from a nearby village. As soon as the airport receives international certification, it will be able to accept aircraft of various airlines that are carriers of tourists.

The military airport in Abkhazia is called Bamboura, it is located in Gudauta, the distance to the state capital is only 40 km. In Transcaucasia, it is considered one of the largest.

The length of the strip for takeoffs and landings of aircraft is 3 km, it can take military and combat aircraft. The strip is located near the coast of the Black Sea and is located so that from the border of the sea to the coast about 70 m. Thus, the aircraft can be hidden from the radar, and after they take off, they have the opportunity to fly at a small height above the sea.

Even in bad weather conditions, Bamboura is able to service aircraft of maritime and civil aviation. In the USSR, it was the base for assault, military equipment of the Air Force, took transport ships and fighters. In the first half of 2009, Russia began to deploy its own Air Force groups.

Both airports currently do not accept passengers, and for a trip to Abkhazia tourists use the others that are currently operating. One of them is Adler Airport, located in Sochi. Sochi Airport is modern and multifunctional, it can accommodate a large number of passengers who want to get to Abkhazia. He provides services to resorts: Adler, Abkhazia and the rest. It is located southeast of Sochi and is located at a distance of 30 km from it.

Babushara Airport

• • • • Babushar Airport (Sukhumi International Airport named after VG Ardzinba) is located in the Gulripsh district of Abkhazia.

Bambour Airport

• Bambour Airport is a joint-based military airfield and is located in the Gudauta district of Abkhazia.

Sochi Airport

Tourists can easily use the airport to travel to the resort in Gagra (Abkhazia). The existing airport of Abkhazia, located in Sochi, was opened in 1945, and it was called Adler. Then it was not very large, and the aircraft was able to take flights only in the daytime. They decided to improve the airport in 1981, its area was significantly increased. Airplanes began to carry out international flights, which before the reconstruction was not. The very first flights with international planes were the following countries: Poland, Bratislava and a little later Prague. After the aircraft from the airport began to fly to the Middle East and the western part of Europe.

In 2009, a new modern air terminal was built. The infrastructure completely allows passengers waiting for boarding to spend time before their flight in comfortable conditions. The airport received its status in the 21st century, and it got its name - Sochi International Airport. It can accept different types of aircraft.

Adler Airport, Sochi, present.

In Russia, the airport in Sochi takes 8th place among major airports in terms of passenger traffic. In 2014, the reconstruction of the terminals was completed, which was necessary for the Olympics in the city of Sochi. For passengers departing from Sochi Airport, it provides services such as restaurants and cafes, duty-free shops, parking, there are also currency exchange points, a mother and child room. You can see the airport terminals from the inside in the following video:

Abkhazia is a fairly popular resort among Russian tourists. Usually people with low and medium incomes go there, and this country fully justifies the status of an inexpensive health resort. Its main advantages are the absence of a language barrier, a visa-free regime and the relative cheapness of recreation.  It is much cheaper to relax on the Black Sea in Abkhazia than in Sochi or in Crimea, and the level of rest is quite comparable. It will be interesting to everyone here:

• green recreation lovers will discover mountains, the sun, the beautiful sea and Lake Ritsa, which changes color depending on the seasons;
• lovers of antiquity and architecture will surely enjoy the taste of Sukhumi;
• believing tourists will be able to visit the New Athos Monastery.

But almost all tourists have a question - what is the most correct and quickest way to get to this country?Which city in Abkhazia has an airport and is it possible to fly there?

Air gate in Abkhazia

At the moment, there are two airports in the country:

1. Bambour. This military airport is located in the Gudauta region of the country. It does not accept civilian sideboards and is used only for military training.
2. Grandma’s. The airport is located in Sukhumi. But the problem is that he did not pass the international certification of ICAO and can not accept passenger sides. It is used only for emergency cases: domestic helicopter flights, UN aviation and Russian peacekeepers land here.

That is, there are air gates in Abkhazia, but they do not accept passengers.

There are no civil international airports in Abkhazia - fly to Adler

How to get to Abkhazia?

If you decide to come to rest in Abkhazia, then this can be done by car and train. If you get far, then you need to fly to the airport of Adler (Sochi), and from there get to Sukhumi or another resort. This can be done in several ways:

1. By taxi (from the airport to the checkpoint at the border, only 9 km).
2. By train (runs twice a day).
3. By water transport (goes from Sochi to Gagra).
4. On buses and taxis. They depart almost from the bus station and from the city center.

As you can see, the route is quite simple. Adler has a beautiful airport, one of the ten largest and most equipped ports in Russia. At the exit from it, you can take the bus and in 30-60 minutes you will be at the selected resort.

This is all the information aboutis there a working airport in Abkhazia? . The country's authorities say they have planned global modernization of the airport in the near future, therefore, it is possible that he will receive international status from the civil aviation organization.

Immediately after the hijacking in the USSR, TASS mean messages appeared: “On October 15, the An-24 civilian air fleet made a regular flight from the city of Batumi to Sukhumi. Two armed bandits, using weapons against the command of the plane, forced the plane to change the route and land on the territory of Turkey in the city of Trabzon. During the clash with the bandits, an airplane stewardess was killed, who tried to block the bandits from entering the pilot's cabin. Two pilots were injured. Passengers are unharmed. The Soviet government asked the Turkish authorities to extradite murderers to bring them to Soviet court, as well as return the plane and Soviet citizens aboard the An-24.

At an altitude of 800 meters, two passengers — a father and son Brazinskasa called a flight attendant and handed a note to the pilots demanding a change of route and flight to Turkey. The girl rushed into the cabin and shouted: "Attack!" The criminals rushed after her, firing. “Do not get up to anyone!” The youngest hijacker shouted. “Otherwise, we’ll blow up the plane!” Soon, the hijacked board crossed the Soviet-Turkish border, and after another half an hour it was over the airfield in Trabzon. Passengers and crew were invited to stay in Turkey, but no one agreed. The next day, on a specially sent plane, all the people and the body of the deceased girl were taken to the USSR. A little later, the Turks returned and the stolen An-24. After returning from Turkey, the board underwent repairs at the Kiev ARZ 410 and again flew in the Sukhumi squadron with a photograph of Nadia Kurchenko in the cabin. In 1979, the aircraft was transferred to Samarkand where it was operated until the resource was fully depleted, and in 1997 it was scrapped.

The name of Hope one day flew around the world. And for many years it became a symbol of Komsomol heroism. In many schools of the USSR, Komsomol and pioneer detachments are named after hope. Nadezhda Kurchenko was buried in the center of Sukhumi in the form of a stewardess and with a Komsomol badge. In Sukhumi, a park was named in her honor and a memorial was erected. After 20 years, her grave was transferred to the city cemetery of Glazov at the request of her mother.

After the death of the stewardess, the passenger safety rules for air travel were radically changed, the rules for screening passengers and baggage were introduced, and the laws against air terrorism were tightened not only in the USSR, but throughout the world. At airports, metal detectors and pre-flight searches appeared, cross-border flights began to be accompanied by armed guards “in civilian clothes”, weapons were also given out to the crew, and a special article 211 appeared in the Criminal Code - “Aircraft hijacking”. The USSR also learned from the West’s reaction to the Brasinsky terrorist attack. The leadership of the country, and especially the KGB conducting this case, finally believed in cave anti-communism and anti-Sovietism of the Western elites. In the fight against dissidents within the USSR, the KGB was increasingly guided by the idea that the “dissent” was only a pawn in the hands of foreign intelligence services.

In 1982, Gennady Bocharov wrote about Nadezhda a large detailed essay in the publication Young Guard http://apsnyteka.org/1319-bocharov_g_nadezhda_kurchenko.html

Hello everybody. I continue to publish my reports from Abkhazia. Before us is an abandoned airport in the village of Babushara near Sukhum.

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The inscription is scary, but we are not afraid, just like a cow is not afraid. Everything inside is groomed.


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The history of Sukhumi Airport dates back to the mid-1960s, when the terminal building was built. In the late 1970s, the thickness of the concrete coating was increased, which made it possible to take a heavier IL-76 aircraft. In the 1980s, a new airport terminal was built, and the take-off strip was extended, which allowed the IL-86 aircraft to be received.

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Before the war, the airport was an important transportation hub, flights to many cities of the USSR were made here, and helicopters flew to various settlements of Abkhazia.
Passenger turnover in the summer amounted to 5 thousand passengers per day, in winter up to 1 thousand
Sukhumi Airport is capable of accepting any passenger aircraft weighing up to 125 tons of airbus class. The 1st class airfield has one 3.64km artificial GDP. (one of the longest in the CIS) with reinforced concrete coating and the possibility of landing from 2 sides, which distinguishes it from the airport in Sochi.


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Unfortunately, I did not find old photos. But there is this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v\u003d7HwRyUT2Yts  The video perfectly shows how everything was there. Watch photos and videos and compare.
The old building did not immediately become so spent. It was even renovated in 1998-2000. It began to be used for its intended purpose, for some time a restaurant operated in it. In 1999, for the glazing of the walls of the second building of the Rostov-on-Don terminal, which was going to use the Babusharsky airport as a spare, he put in a lot of glasses, but in July 2000 a tornado passed over the airfield, which knocked out several of these glasses. Georgia closed the airspace of Abkhazia, the aircraft created a bypass route at a distance of 43-47 km from the Abkhaz coast. The airport is excluded from existing international aeronautical information collections.
On August 11, 2008, during the war in South Ossetia, for the first time in 15 years, Russian military transport planes, more than three dozen Il-76s, delivered paratroopers and military equipment, landed at the airport. On September 14, 2008, the first airliner, the plane of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, boarded the airport for the first 15 years.


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The new airport building is currently being renovated and looks new and attractive. Repair was completed in 2011, and flights were supposed to begin in 2013 but, unfortunately, the airport does not work. The fact is that the ICAO international civil aviation organization does not recognize Sukhum Airport as international, as it recognizes the territorial integrity of Georgia; the sky over Abkhazia cannot be opened without the permission of the Georgian authorities, as this, according to ICAO, violates international standards. ICAO canceled the Sukhum airport code and removed information about it from its documents starting from the 12th edition of August 2006. Since then, a record of the provision of the code (renewal of its validity) has not been made. The airport is closed for international traffic. IATA member airlines do not fly to Abkhazia. To avoid IATA sanctions, Russian airlines also do not fly to Sukhum.
All this is sad enough. Now the building is completely new, but there are no crowds of passengers buying tickets and getting off the ramp .... And only the Abkhazian Air Force is based at the airport (more precisely, what remains of it), as well as small kekepuzniks flying to Pskhu and private sightseeing aircraft.


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Backpacks used to go along this conveyor and passengers took them ...


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Fly Aeroflot airplanes.


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Once upon a time people went here. There is even some kind of deju vu sensation. I don’t know, but for some reason, the pictures of people walking here, eating ice cream, reading newspapers and standing in line for tickets are clearly visible to me.


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Boarding gate.


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And here luggage was stored.


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What about the airport itself?


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Technology Cemetery


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Helicopter of the Air Force of Abkhazia. No more take off, no propeller.


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These seem to still fly.


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Light attack aircraft L-39.


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And here is the famous Yak-40 - the plane of President Eduard Shevardnadze, who flew during the war in Sukhumi in 1993. I could not fly on it, because planes shot down and threw it at the airport.


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Decorated with "