Wizz Air, which two years ago had the keynote role at Routes Silk Road in Tbilisi, Georgia, has come back to the country in a big way with the announcement to new flights from Kutaisi, Georgia to seven cities in Europe.

The airline will add a new base at David The Builder Kutaisi International Airport, which is in Georgia’s second largest city on the foothills of the Samgurali mountains. Flights will begin 23 September 2016 twice weekly to Berlin Schönefeld and Munich Memmingen in Germany, while starting 24 September to Larnaca, Cyrpus; Sofia, Bulgaria and Thessaloniki, Greece. Wizz launches flights 25 September to Dortmund and Milan Bergamo. It will base one Airbus A320 in Kutaisi.

”We are very excited about being a part of the economic development of Kutaisi, not only in terms of culture and tourism, but for business and manufacturing as well,” said Wizz Air head of communications Doug Oliver. “Wizz Air believes investment in Georgia with an Airbus A320 aircraft and with a locally recruited base crew will pay economic dividends for business in Georgia and for Wizz Air. We know the importance of affordable air travel for a region’s economic development which has been a by-product of WIZZ operations in all our base cities. Opening a base here underlines our commitment to providing the people of Georgia with high quality, low-fare service to more and more cities throughout Europe.”

“Today is a very important day for all of us, as today we have reached the final results of all the hard work and effort. I would like to thank Wizz Air for being our supportive partner during all these years,” said Kate Aleksidze, CEO of United Airports of Georgia.

Kutaisi has a newly rebuilt airport created by French company Vinci Airports. It reopened on 27 September 2012 to an audience that included Wizz Air CEO József Váradi, Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Kutaisi had 183,000 passengers in 2015 and also is served by Pegasus Airlines to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Ukraine International Airlines to Kiev and Kharkov and Ural Airlines to Moscow Domodedovo.

Wizz Air head of ground operations Davit Mamulaishvili gave the keynote speech at Routes Silk Road on 7 July 2014, the first of two years that a Routes event was held in Georgia.

Kutaisi, which has had very little air service until this announcement, is located 221 kilometers west of Tbilisi on the Rioni Rover and known for its historical past. The city is over 2,500 years old and was the capital of the Kingdom of Colchis in 600BC. It is featured in the epic Greek poem Jason and the Argonauts.

Wiss Air now operates 66 A320s and A321 aircraft from 23 bases in 38 countries.