Mestia Airport: a small Georgian miracle. How to get to Mestia (Svaneti): plane, train, bus Mestia Airport
Gradually, a global trend reached the post-Soviet space, according to which airports and railway stations should be not only convenient infrastructure facilities, but also architectural masterpieces, real business cards of the cities in which they are located. And today we will talk about 8 the most unusual airports in Russia and neighboring countries.
Queen Tamara Airport. Mestia, Georgia
Several years ago, the Georgian authorities decided to begin a large-scale reconstruction of the town of Mestia in Svaneti, hoping to turn it into a popular all-season resort. tourist place, where you can enjoy beautiful mountain views, as well as the history and architecture of the Svans - Georgian highlanders.
A significant disadvantage of Mestia was its location deep in the mountains. And the authorities decided to fight the transport problem not only through the construction of a modern highway through the gorges, but also through the construction - small, but nice and cozy.
Queen Tamara Airport in Mestia was designed by the German architectural company J. Mayer H. Architects. It is designed to accommodate several small aircraft per day. And with its shape, the building echoes the famous Svan towers - medieval architectural structures that had an economic and defensive function.
Airport in Astana. Kazakhstan
Founded back in 1931, this airport for a long time was a modest regional air terminal connecting the city with other settlements Soviet Union. Its fate was dramatically changed by the transfer of the capital of Kazakhstan in the mid-nineties from Almaty to Tselinograd, renamed for this occasion to Astana.
Now the airport of the Kazakh capital is one of the largest and most modern in the whole Central Asia. In 2005, it hosted the opening of a new passenger terminal with a central volume in the form of a huge dome glowing in the night with a cut-off front side.
Khanty-Mansiysk Airport. Russia
Khanty-Mansiysk has also grown a lot and changed for the better in the last two decades. This city has become one of the centers of the Russian gas industry. Many buildings with amazing architecture appeared in it, one of which was new terminal airport.
In Khanty-Mansiysk, despite the name, the Khanty and Mansi together make up just over five percent of the city's population. However, their traditions and culture are carefully preserved and cultivated. And even the new airport terminal is stylized as a huge tent, in which the people of reindeer herders live, who gave the name Autonomous Okrug and its capital.
Zvartnots Airport. Yerevan, Armenia
And in the Armenian capital, a beautiful, unusual airport appeared back in Soviet times. Caucasian architects in the USSR were generally allowed liberties that were not available to architects from other republics. And as proof of this, we can cite the unusual shapes of the Zvartnots air terminal in Yerevan.
The air gates of Yerevan look as if it were a huge flying saucer that landed on a field twelve kilometers from the capital of Armenia. However, the complex, opened in 1980, is noticeably outdated by our time. And the Argentine company Corporation America, which operates it, is seriously thinking about demolishing this structure and building modern terminals in its place.
Airport named after Heydar Aliyev. Baku, Azerbaijan
In another Caucasian capital, Baku, the airport also has a building that looks like a UFO. But this facility was included in the list of the most unusual air terminals in the post-Soviet space thanks to another structure. In the fall of 2013, a building opened there, designed by the famous architectural company Arup.
A huge building with an area of 65 thousand square meters from a height resembles a bird spreading its wings in flight, or a huge plane soaring over the runway.
Tallinn Airport. Estonia
It is quite appropriate to consider the appearance of buildings in the form of tents in cities and countries that were once inhabited by nomadic peoples, for example, in Khanty-Mansiysk, or Saudi Arabia. But back in 1980, an airport terminal was built in Tallinn, which from the outside resembles a giant tent. Apparently, in this way the architect hinted at the huge tourism potential of the small republic of Estonia.
Belgorod Airport. Russia
In July 2013, a significant event took place in Belgorod - a new terminal was opened at the local airport, turning the old air terminal into modern complex, where it is not a shame to invite tourists from all over the world.
The building, with a huge curved canopy at the entrance, has an area of 12,200 square meters. The new terminal made it possible to increase the capacity of the airport in Belgorod by four and a half times at once - from 100 to 450 people per hour.
Pulkovo. Saint-Petersburg, Russia
And in the fall of 2013, fans of aviation architecture rejoiced in St. Petersburg. A new terminal at Pulkovo Airport, built according to the design of the famous international architectural company Grimshaw Architects, was put into operation there.
The internal layout of the new terminal in Pulkovo echoes the architectural and planning tradition of St. Petersburg. Different areas of the building are connected by bridges, as if they were islands on which the building is located. historical Center Northern capital Russia. At the same time, to the delight of passengers and workers, the mentioned bridges are not raised at night.
For the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Rostov-on-Don, a new airport terminal will be built, designed by London-based architectural studio Twelve Architects. Appearance This building is based on the concept of a bridge connecting Rostov with other cities and countries. And the structure itself will consist of several parallel elements, stylized as bridge arches.
Georgia. Flight from Tbilisi to Svaneti. June 14th, 2011
The bet on the development of aviation was made correctly, since a decent western tourist chooses to travel primarily by plane, it saves time and nerves, and in a small country with an ambiguous reputation (for tourists) it is also a matter of safety. In addition, as is known, infrastructure projects are one of the main levers of economic recovery.
Against the backdrop of this development, Georgian airlines went bankrupt one after another. Georgian International Airlines (formerly Euroline) completely disappeared from the market. Sky Georgia, which not so long ago promised to open direct flights to New York for the first time in history, has completely stopped passenger flights, although the company’s website promises the resumption of passenger flights this summer. Air Batumi got rid of its old Boeing after a season of unsuccessful work in the Batumi market, announced the imminent appearance of the Fokkera-50, more suitable for short-haul lines, but the announcement has been on the company’s website for several months, and flights are still not operating. Against this background, things are going relatively well for Airzena's national carrier, Georgian Airlines, although the company was forced to abandon the newest aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 737-700, and recently lost one of its CRJ-100 airliners during a plane crash in the Congo. But at least the flights did not stop. I believe that servicing the Georgian government and carrying out work commissioned by the UN is a serious help for the existence of Eirzena. And, of course, direct flights to Moscow opened not so long ago are a serious support for the airline. This year, Eirzena added flights from Batumi Airport to its route network, including a direct flight to Moscow on the Domodedovo schedule. Despite the growth in airport performance, this did not affect the activities of Georgian airlines at all. It is not clear what the reason is, but even Eirzena is not represented in key destinations, as there are no flights of Georgian airlines to such busy destinations as Baku and Istanbul, and formally only code-share flights of Ukrainian partners are carried out to Kiev from Tbilisi. Somehow this is not logical. There is no explanatory information on this matter.
With the revival of tourism in the famous Svaneti, the need for an airport arose and it was built relatively quickly near the town of Mestia. Surprisingly and incomprehensibly, the Canadian airline Kenn Borek was appointed as a translator in this direction (perhaps the Minister of Economy lobbied for a company from the country in which she worked before being appointed to work in the government?), they overtook a Twin Otter (by the way, this particular copy used to have water skis and carried out transportation on water), they brought pilots on duty and are working, often canceling flights due to poor visibility at the passes through which the route runs. Perhaps a foreign airline was chosen because there is no suitable fleet on the local market, and it is shameful to operate flights on Soviet corn carriers. The President promised that by 2012 new French aircraft (apparently of the APR brand) would be purchased for regional flights. It is not disclosed under which airline and for which routes this will be carried out, but for now Mestia is the only airport on which you can bet. A good deed, however, turned out to be unfinished; it is still impossible to book tickets from abroad on your own; there is no website. It is unclear why the flight to Mestia from Batumi has not been launched... New airport named after Queen Tamara, built by the architect Jörgen Mayer, underwent renovation just 4-5 months after its opening; it was re-painted and painted at the time of our presence there. Opinions local residents They are divided about the architecture of the airport; the fashionable building is really visible from many parts of the city, and while it stands out from the surrounding view, which not everyone likes.
To purchase tickets for a flight to Mestia, I made a transfer to Georgia more than a month in advance and they bought me a ticket that cost about $45, that is, quite affordable. It seems that maize trucks still have flights from Natakhtari airfield, near Tbilisi, scheduled for the summer, prices are lower. Flights are operated by Vanilla Sky, but details are not available online.
We arrived at the airport as expected a couple of hours before, but registration opened literally just before departure. Since the tickets were purchased remotely and we did not have them, I assumed that e-ticket That's why it's electronic because it's in the system and you don't need to have a physical copy of it. But it was on this day that something happened to the system and they demanded a printout of the ticket from me (note that they politely and later sorted out the situation themselves), so it’s worth keeping this in mind, and not only in this case, recently there were completely blatant printouts of tickets the Latvian border guards demanded at the Riga airport, since there were no boarding stations for the second segment of the transfer flight, but that’s a completely different story.
Several people flying to Mestia were taken to the outskirts of the airport, accompanied by police. When I took out the camera and started filming the plane, they didn’t tell me anything. I’m leaving these details because in many countries a person with a camera is suspected of being a spy or a terrorist. In Georgia, these relics of the wild past also periodically emerge in the minds of particularly zealous citizens. (The Ministry of Internal Affairs should issue some kind of directive on this matter.)
A DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, specially decorated with Svan towers and an invitation to spend the weekend in Mestia.
An-28 and the police car that escorted us:
Instruction in English:
These days, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite was visiting Georgia; there was a Lithuanian Air Force plane on the platform; it turns out that the president’s flight was accompanied by military personnel. On the background
The old building of the Novo-Alekseevka airport, which has undergone major renovation, is now a VIP terminal.
The plane is designed for 19 passengers, there is no toilet:
Flying over Tbilisi:
One of several refugee settlements near Tbilisi built after the Russian invasion:
We fly past Gori, located at the confluence of three rivers.
Goristsikhe fortress in the center of Gori:
On the right side you can see Tskhinvali in the distance; it turns out that the newly-minted capital is very small.
The plane makes a significant detour while flying around South Ossetia, and rushes northwest to the passes. At first the mountains are very small and somewhere far below, but they quickly grow and now we are maneuvering among the snow-capped peaks.
Behind these mountains is Russia:
The snow began to melt, creating patterns:
Landslide:
After 50 minutes of flight, the first Svan towers appeared:
Near the center of Mestia:
The runway is visible:
And a brand new airport:
We are going to land:
We taxi to the airport terminal building. When we landed I wanted to take a photo, but one of the policemen said that it was forbidden to take photographs. Then I asked how it was that it was possible in Tbilisi, but not here? Well then, take it off, he answered me.
Airport inside:
That citizen over there, looking straight into the camera, vilely told that I dared to photograph a security object to the very policeman with whom I described the conversation above. The policeman just waved him off.
The area around has yet to be improved.
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In Arab countries, authorities and businesses are chasing size. They want to own everything in the world: the biggest, the most expensive. But size, as you know, is not the main thing. To confirm these words, one can cite the recently opened airport in the high-mountainous Georgian village of Mestia.
IN last years Georgia is transforming right before our eyes. This is especially noticeable in the coastal resort town Batumi, which is changing its appearance at a rapid pace. We have already talked on our website about it, which looks like several stones stacked on top of each other, and about incredible shapes on the border with Turkey a couple of tens of kilometers from Batumi.
But changes are taking place not only in this city, they have affected the entire country, even the remote mountain village of Mestia. Previously, it could only be reached by SUV. And therefore, despite the huge tourism potential (original culture, Svan defense towers, untouched nature, mountain descents), tourists practically did not visit Mestia.
But now a new one, which will be very popular in the future, is being actively built here. mountain resort: hotels are being built, a road is being built through the mountains. And in December, an airport opened in Mestia.
Of course, that small town doesn't need an airport the size of Charles de Gaulle. Therefore, the dimensions of the opened object are quite modest. But this does not at all prevent him from looking interesting and original.
After all, through the efforts of the German architectural company J. Mayer H. Architects (by the way, they also created the project for the border crossing in Sarpi), this small building combines both modern European architecture and the traditional architecture of the Svans (a subethnic group of the Georgian people).
So, with all the high-tech design, the highest element of that airport will seem to echo the Svan towers located at a distance of some kilometer from it.
Moreover, this airport was built in just three months, so that this winter the first tourists would appear in this village (the first hotels and ski lifts were also launched by December).
Flights from Tbilisi to Mestia on small, single-engine aircraft will be operated by the Canadian air carrier Kenn Borek Air.
: UGMS
civil
Georgia Georgia
Coordinates: 43°03′11″ n. w. / 42°44′56″ E. d.43.05306° s. w. 42.74889° E. d. / 43.05306; 42.74889
opening date
| Annual passenger traffic | Year | Passenger traffic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0 0 45 | ▬ | |
| 2011 | ▲ | 10 177,8 % | |
| 2012 | ▼ | 36,2 % | |
| 2013 | ▼ | 69,7 % | |
| 2014 | ▲ | 151,8 % | |
| 2015 | ▲ | 232,5 % | |
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Notes
- Links
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An excerpt characterizing the Queen Tamara Airport- Well, why are you silent? Who's dressed up as a Hungarian? – the regimental commander joked sternly.
- Your Excellency…
- Well, what about “your excellency”? Your Excellency! Your Excellency! And what about Your Excellency, no one knows.
“Your Excellency, this is Dolokhov, demoted...” the captain said quietly.
– Was he demoted to field marshal or something, or to soldier? And a soldier must be dressed like everyone else, in uniform.
“Your Excellency, you yourself allowed him to go.”
- Allowed? Allowed? “You’re always like this, young people,” said the regimental commander, cooling down somewhat. - Allowed? I’ll tell you something, and you and...” The regimental commander paused. - I’ll tell you something, and you and... - What? - he said, getting irritated again. - Please dress people decently...
And the regimental commander, looking back at the adjutant, walked towards the regiment with his trembling gait. It was clear that he himself liked his irritation, and that, having walked around the regiment, he wanted to find another pretext for his anger. Having cut off one officer for not cleaning his badge, another for being out of line, he approached the 3rd company.
- How are you standing? Where's the leg? Where's the leg? - the regimental commander shouted with an expression of suffering in his voice, still about five people short of Dolokhov, dressed in a bluish overcoat.
Dolokhov slowly straightened his bent leg and looked straight into the general’s face with his bright and insolent gaze.
- Why the blue overcoat? Down with... Sergeant Major! Changing his clothes... rubbish... - He didn’t have time to finish.
“General, I am obliged to carry out orders, but I am not obliged to endure...” Dolokhov hastily said.
– Don’t talk at the front!... Don’t talk, don’t talk!...
“You don’t have to endure insults,” Dolokhov finished loudly and resoundingly.
The eyes of the general and the soldier met. The general fell silent, angrily pulling down his tight scarf.
“Please change your clothes, please,” he said, walking away.
The regimental commander, blushing, ran up to the horse, with trembling hands took the stirrup, threw the body over, straightened himself, took out his sword and with a happy, decisive face, his mouth open to the side, prepared to shout. The regiment perked up like a recovering bird and froze.
- Smir r r r na! - the regimental commander shouted in a soul-shaking voice, joyful for himself, strict in relation to the regiment and friendly in relation to the approaching commander.
Along a wide, tree-lined, highwayless road, a tall blue Viennese carriage was moving in a train at a brisk trot, slightly rattling its springs. Behind the carriage galloped a retinue and a convoy of Croats. Next to Kutuzov sat an Austrian general in a strange white uniform among the black Russians. The carriage stopped at the shelf. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were talking quietly about something, and Kutuzov smiled slightly, while, stepping heavily, he lowered his foot from the footrest, as if these 2,000 people were not there, who were looking at him and the regimental commander without breathing .
