Tbilisi airport is being rebuilt to take 10 million passengers a year, up from five, by 2028

TAV Georgia, the operator and a subsidiary of TAV Airports within the Groupe ADP aviation group, is putting 150 million dollars into enlarging the passenger terminal and the airfield at Tbilisi International, with the work scheduled across 2026 to 2028. The reported scope includes doubling passenger boarding bridges to ten, seven remote aircraft parking stands, nine more check-in desks, two additional baggage belts and 24 passport control positions, along with modernised operational systems and more retail, catering and lounge space.

The stated effect is to lift annual terminal capacity from about five million passengers to around ten. Capacity at the primary gateway is the hard constraint behind a great deal of the tourism economy: it limits how many routes can be scheduled at useful hours, how much slack exists in the summer peak, and how comfortably a new carrier can be accommodated. Doubling it does not create demand, but it removes a ceiling — and a ceiling is exactly what operators notice when every July flight is full and fares climb accordingly.

Two caveats are worth keeping in view. First, a 2026–2028 construction window means disruption before benefit: terminal works at a live airport mean temporary layouts, queues and changed access, and a tour operator planning 2027 arrivals should expect friction. Second, an expansion of the existing airport is a separate question from the long-discussed proposal for an entirely new Tbilisi airport, and coverage of the expansion has noted the two sit awkwardly together. Nothing in a capacity upgrade guarantees passenger growth; it only makes growth possible if the routes and the demand turn up.