On March 21, this year, Air Samarkand made its first flight to Istanbul. The Airbus A321neo landed in Istanbul after a four-and-a-half-hour flight.

An UzA correspondent participated in this process and interviewed experts.

Air Samarkand PR Director Oleg Ivanov:

– Today, we launched the first regular international flight from Samarkand to Istanbul. Before this, we operated a charter flight. The first flight took place on December 29, 2023. We made our first international flight on March 21. How is it different from charter flights? If, when making charter flights, we carry out orders from travel agencies for a specific company, then with regular flights, we carry out flights strictly according to the schedule and plan of the company.

Flights Samarkand – Istanbul – Samarkand are operated on Mondays and Thursdays. We plan to increase the number of such flights in the future, to fly twice a week, 3-5 times. In May, we will open an air route to Tbilisi.

Flights to Jeddah and Dubai are also planned. Our air travel is planned to cover 21 cities, including many CIS countries, the Middle East, Turkish cities, and China.

Thus, we will gradually expand the geography of flights and increase the number of flights. Our pilots are from different countries and have a lot of experience. All licenses and certificates are available. It should be noted that airlines do not launch in a day or month. A lot of work is being carried out for this. This takes at least several years. We completed this work in a year and a half, which is a good result.

Our company flew to Istanbul on an Airbus A321neo aircraft. The first flight was 100 percent full, and there were no empty seats left. Therefore, we are considering the possibility of placing a larger aircraft on the next flight. The Airbus A321neo has 221 seats, while the A330 model has 306 seats. We will most likely use the 306-seat aircraft on our next flight. We are currently in the process of launching our trading system on the website.

Air Samarkand Deputy Director General Cemal Tokuzlu:

– Our airline is still young and has only been operating for a short time. And we have big plans ahead. We aim to organize trips to Uzbekistan for 200 thousand foreign citizens annually. Thus, we will contribute to increasing the tourism potential in Uzbekistan. We are opening flights not only to Türkiye but also to other countries, including Indonesia and Thailand.

We are planning to launch regular and charter flights to other cities in Türkiye, including Istanbul. Based on this, we will fill Samarkand hotels with foreign tourists.

Interviewed by Nasiba Ziyodullayeva, UzA

Türkiye, Istanbul