Babushara airport serves the capital of Abkhazia, the city of Sukhumi. It is located in the village of Babushara and bears the name of V. G. Ardzinba. Unfortunately, the airport is not in operation at the moment.
There is one runway on the territory of the airfield; its length is 3640 meters. The airport is able to receive such aircraft as Il-86, Tu-154 and lighter ones.
The Abkhaz Airlines airline cooperates with the airport, and the UN aviation is also based here.
The problem with the launch of the airport is that the ICAO organization cannot recognize it as international until the Georgian authorities give permission to do so. Currently, the airport is sometimes used for flights of the top officials of Abkhazia and Russia.
The closest operating airport to Abkhazia is located in Adler / Sochi - Sochi International Airport named after V. I. Sevastyanov
History
The history of the airport in Sukhumi begins in the 60s of the last century. Then a new airfield and terminal were opened. In the 70s, the runway was reconstructed and the coating thickness increased. Over the next decade, a new passenger terminal opened at the airport and the runway was lengthened.
The new airport runway made it possible to receive the Il-86 aircraft, which at that time carried out regular flights on the Sukhum-Moscow route. In addition, a regular helicopter service was established from the airport between other cities of Abkhazia. The passenger traffic reached 6 thousand people a year.
The airport was closed in 1993, immediately after the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia. Several aircraft were abandoned on the territory of the airfield. The runway was also mined.
After clearing the territory of the airport from mines, local residents began to use the free land for agricultural purposes.
In 2008, during the war in South Ossetia, several landings were made on the territory of the airport by Russian military aircraft, which delivered military equipment and airborne troops to the territory of Abkhazia. In the same year, a passenger plane landed at the airfield with the Russian Foreign Minister on board.
