What does the airport code BUS mean?

The code and the airport behind it

BUS belongs to Batumi International Airport, officially named after the aircraft designer Aleksandre Kartveli — the same designer whom English aviation literature calls Alexander Kartveli. Airlines and booking systems use the three-letter IATA code; air traffic control uses the four-letter ICAO code UGSB. Both point at the same place.

Why BUS is not a bus station

Three-letter codes are assigned, not chosen to spell a word, and this one collides with an everyday English noun. That collision is why the question gets asked at all: searches for BUS return timetables, while the code itself belongs to an airport.

Where you will meet the code

Next to the flight number on a boarding pass, as the destination on a baggage tag, and in booking forms whose airport field wants three letters. If a form refuses the city spelled out, BUS is what it is waiting for.

Georgian airport codes side by side

Codes checked against the aerodrome register of the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency in August 2026 — the regulator, not the airports themselves.

The register also lists Mestia, Natakhtari and Ambrolauri, with ICAO codes but no IATA code. gcaa.ge/aerodromes-and-airports/

Once you know the code

The pages on this site cover what happens after the booking form: which airlines land here, what the arrivals hall holds, what a taxi should cost.