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Sukhumi Dranda Airport is the main airport of the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia. It is alternatively known as Sukhum Babushara Airport, both Dranda and Babushara are villages located nearby. The airport derives the first part of its name from Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, which it is located some 20km away from. Sukhumi Dranda Airport was built in the mid-1960s, when the region was part of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet era, it was used only for domestic flights, primarily delivering people from across the Soviet Union to the sunny beaches of Abkhazia. The airport was heavily damaged during the civil war in the early 1990s. Landmines and other explosive remnants of war have been cleared from the airport since by the HALO Trust, the only landmine clearance agancy active in Abkhazia at the present time. Due to the economic embargo on Abkhazia, the airport is currently only used for flights to the mountain village of Pskhu and for flights carried out by the UNOMIG air transport. The government of the unrecognised Republic of Abkhazia has expressed its desire to resume international air traffic in the near future.[1] There is another airport in Abkhazia near Gudauta, which serves Russian military troops located there.
