King David the Builder International Airport: KUT

There’s a new international airport in Kutaisi that’s about 15 km west of town. WizzAir started offering direct flights to Kiev in September, and I figured that since I had a whole weekend to myself, I’d check out the Ukrainian capital and, by extension, the new Kutaisi airport.

Fast forward to the day of travel. Tickets have been purchased. Bag has been packed. The problem? I wasn’t sure how to get out to the airport. I asked around and there is no airport-specific public transportation from the city. During the day, it is possible to get a marshrutka heading for Batumi, Samtredia, Zugdidi, or pretty much any point west. However, that means either standing out in the road and trying to flag down a rocketing minibus or schlepping all my stuff over to McDonald’s (where the marshrutkas leave from) and sitting on a marshrutka for up to 30 minutes (or more) waiting for it to leave. When I asked about taxis, I was told it would be somewhere between 20-30 lari, which isn’t completely unreasonable, but that’s a bit more money that I wanted to pay.

The problem, I found, was that my flight left around 9:30 pm, after the marshrutkas were no longer running. I could have prebooked a taxi, but I thought that might cost me more so about 90 minutes prior to my flight, I walked to the street outside my building and flagged down a taxi. Cost out to the airport? 10 lari.

KUT itself is still unfinished. The traffic control tower is under scaffolding; wires are hanging from the ceiling inside the building; there’s white construction dust everywhere (and it gets all over everything); the building has no services—no place to buy water or souvenirs or a snack or anything. If you wanted to spend money here, the only thing you could buy is a taxi ride.  The check-in process was fairly efficient and normal, but when I responded “yes” to whether or not I had liquids, the check-in agent insisted I’d have to check my bag even though everything was under 100mL and in a Ziploc baggie. When I pulled out said baggie full of toiletries, she said that she thought I had a bottle of wine in my bag. Slightly odd, but that’s the way it goes.

After going through security and immigration, there is a large waiting area with plenty of seating. The wait was fine, but I’d recommend using the toilet before heading out to the airport. There are toilets, two unisex numbers in fact, but the wait was consistently at least 5 deep and they were a bit, um, unkempt.

Boarding the plane was pretty zoo-like, too. Nobody knew where to line up and the staff working the gate (who were the same staff who were working the check-in counters) kept trying to follow orders being barked in English by a woman who I can only guess was some kind of “foreign expert” who was there to help them get the airport up and running. However, everyone was boarded and seated and the flight took off pretty darned near on-time.

My inbound flight to Kutaisi was similarly chaotic but tinged with a party atmosphere. At one point when I walked back to use the bathroom during the flight, I was flagged down by a man waving around a bottle of whiskey who insisted I have a drink with him to celebrate the upcoming elections in America.  It seemed like the whole back of the plane was drunk and wanting to talk to me about US politics.  

As soon as the plane touched town (and was still rocketing down the runway) several people stood up to retrieve luggage from the overhead bins. The flight attendants yelled, but the offending passengers didn’t pay much mind. It took a while to get off the plane and once we entered the building to go through customs, everyone started pushing and crowding towards the only two available agents. After I managed to squeeze myself through the throng for my passport stamp (and free bottle of wine), it was difficult to find a spot at the baggage carousel because people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder around it. I retrieved my bag, but then I had to fight my way into the arrivals area because there were so many people crushed around the exit door waiting for other passengers.

Outside of the airport, I figured a taxi ride back to Kutaisi might cost me around 20 lari (because I’d paid 10 lari to get out to the airport in the first place). The first guy wanted $20. I said no. He said yes. I said no and walked out to the road. By this time, it was around 10 pm and I was trying to think through how I was going to get back into town (the road outside of the airport is pitch black dark and the traffic was hurtling by…not exactly great conditions in which to flag someone down for a ride). A car exited from the airport parking lot and pulled up beside me. The guy behind the wheel opened the passenger door and mumbled something. I said, “Otsi lari?” (20 lari?). He said something and waved his hands around a bit. I realized that I was tired and didn’t care, so I threw my bag in the back seat and jumped in. To make a long story short, he actually wanted 30 lari, I paid him 25, and he said (I think) that the standard fare from the airport is, actually, 30 lari and he was surprised I was able to get out there for only 10 lari.

The driver dropped me off where I needed him to. He acted like he thought he was leaving me in a weird part of town because he kept asking me if I was okay. For a brief moment, I didn't think he was going to let me out of the car. I assured him I was fine. I grabbed my luggage, gave him one last hearty thanks, and I beelined to my apartment, eager to crawl into bed and get to sleep. In the end, I would fly from KUT again, but I'd definitely expect a bit of chaos.