I came to Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli airport exactly at 17:00 2 hours prior to my flight. the registration, passport and security control went smooth and I started to wait the boarding.
Tbilisi airport for most of Georgians present small dirty airport terminal, well for me, after all European old terminals, Tbilisi is really a big improvement. especially the first terminal built in 2006. The second one looks trash. On the back you can see the roof of the extended terminal, which also lower in height.
I like the skylight which lets the sunlight enter the building, nice way to heat the terminal in winter.
I told you, looks really clean.
this is my bird 4L-TGU e190. Georgian airways really survived this winter thanks to those Embraers.
Beautiful
Tbilisi airport is getting crowded. With rapid tourism growth you can really see how busy the airport has become. A321 neo from Russia paid a visit in Tbilisi.
I would love to participate in further expansion of Tbilisi airport on this side.
My seat 15A. OMG Embraer is much comfy than b737. really. Wider seats and wider windows. fast boarding fast disembarking.
42 passengers only. I wrote a lot about this flight (TBS_BLQ_TBS) PAX LOAD and how much better it would be to operate TBS-Milan 3X and TBS-Rome 2x instead of Bologna 3X this summer. hope they will consider.
the back of the plane was empty the whole flight.
We took off with great winds. I was really scared, the plane was struggling a lot. the landing was very smooth and the whole flight itself. its just that the crew cant really regulate the air temperature in the cabin. it again had problems, sometimes freezing sometimes hot.
not
Summary: They started TBS -BLQ flight because the thought they would attract customers from Milan and Rome. but ops, this did not happen. on both of the flights I was the only one going to Milano after landing n BLQ. Now they have plans to operate this route 3 time in summer. But i think its better to operate TBS-Milan 3X and TBS-Rome 2x and leave BLQ only 2X in a week (can be even seasonal).
I am sure if this flight was operated out of Malpensa or Bergamo Milano airports, there would be more than 42 passengers.
Me, too! There's nothing uglier than a dark airport. I recently visited CPO, which is in the middle of the desert, with sunny weather 365 days a year, but the architects decided to make it so dark that they have to keep the lights on all day long! Absurd!
What is written there, in red letters? I love the Georgian alphabet. I think it wouldn't take me long to learn some Georgian. I was in Bolivia some years ago. Quechua is an important language there, and it has ejective sounds, too, just like Georgian! I had no problem to produce those sounds. :D
Why is that? :O
What do you mean "participate in the airport expansion"? Taking part in the building work, or just seeing it?
I couldn't agree more!! I hope that won't change now that Boeing has bought 80% of Embraer! :(
Believe it or not, airlines are taking notice of our reports! Some time ago I reported on a LATAM flight, and they made a fuss because I took screenshots of their website. So you see, for the better of the worse, they ARE reading what we write!. They might notice your suggestion!
That's really weird. And scary!! What if the aircraft has a serious problem and ends up like Helios flight 522 in 2005????
Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting flight! :)
My uneducated guess is that this kind of skylight is a massive heat leak in winter (and that it also strains the air conditioning in summer), but I agree it works wonders for beautifying a terminal.
I share your opinion on the Embraer vs. B737. No middle seats, faster boarding / deplaning due to fewer passengers, and enough overhead bin space.
I do not remember temperature control issues when flying in Embraers, but my flights were not much longer than an hour.
I'm no insider, but I guess that airport landing fees and landing/departing slots are good reasons for choosing to serve Bologna rather than Milano. Whether they will manage to attract passengers to BLQ is another story.
Thanks for sharing !
Hi Giorgi, and thanks for sharing this interesting flight report. A first time seeing both airports, and the airline, for me.
Curious what you mean that Georgian survived the winter “thanks to those Embraers”? Did they have reliability problems with the rest of their fleet? Or something else?
Nice spotting at Tbilisi, I especially love the livery on S7. It’s such a unique and eye-catching colour. Cooler still that it’s a NEO.
I hear you on the comfort issue on Embraers. They are the best planes in the world for economy-class passengers, in my opinion.
Was there any service on this flight? I see they have the standard Embraer IFE screens — were the screens active?
Thanks for sharing an interesting flight-report and some great insights. Have a great year of flying in 2019!
42 pax only? That couldn't have made a lot of money for them to be honest. Would love to try them though! Thanks for your post.
Thanks to share ;)