Samarkand International Airport (SKD) has reported continued growth during the autumn-winter period (AWP) season, with more than 491,000 passengers (+55%) using the airport between 29 October 2023 and 30 March 2024. And in the first three months of 2024, 294,000 passengers have used the ultra-modern airport terminal, a 39% increase on the same period of 2023.
Passenger numbers at SKD have previously more than doubled in each of the past two years, following the opening of the airport’s state-of-the-art terminal facility at the beginning of 2022. Passenger volumes topped one million for the first time at the end of 2023.
Airport management company Air Marakanda reported a big increase in the number of carriers using SKD for the first time during the 2023/24 AWP season – namely Red Wings, SunExpress, Humo Air, Ural Airlines, Qazaq Air and Centrum Air. New routes now connect Samarkand with Izmir, Jeddah, Kazan, Tashkent, Turkestan and Yekaterinburg.
SKD also welcomed the launch of Air Samarkand, the first carrier to base itself at the airport. After beginning with a charter flight programme, Air Samarkand commenced scheduled services to Istanbul on 21st March, and is soon expected to launch to other new destinations.
The airport has also seen low-cost carrier Pobeda increase flight frequency to Moscow from 4 to 9 times a week, while Uzbekistan Airways has increased its Moscow services from 4 to 5 times a week, and to St. Petersburg to 3 times weekly. Utair introduced twice weekly services to Saint Petersburg, Qanot Sharq Airlines doubled flight frequency to Jeddah to four rotations a week, and the regional carrier Silk Avia increased flights to Tashkent to a weekly service.
Anton Khojayan, CEO of Air Marakanda, said: "We continue to see huge demand for domestic and international travel from our local area and from airlines bringing overseas visitors to explore our incredible ancient city of Samarkand. Our airport route network will continue to grow during the summer season, as existing airlines increase capacity on existing routes and open new city connections with Samarkand.”
Air Marakanda says among the new spring-summer season (VLP)developments:
Uzbek air carrier Qanot Sharq plans to resume return flights to Tel Aviv once a week, while Uzbekistan Airways will also open a new flight program on the Tashkent-Tel Aviv-Samarkand route every Tuesday;Ural Airlines will start operating regular flights to Moscow four 4 times a week;Kazakh low-cost airline FlyArystan will resume its flight program to Almaty, operating twice weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays;China Southern Airlines, the largest airline in Asia in terms of fleet size, will resume a once weekly connection from Samarkand to Urumqi (China), beginning on 14th April;Pobeda Airlines will increase flights to Moscow to 10 times a week, while the following air carriers are planning to also add flight frequency on this routing – Aeroflot up to 9 times a week, Uzbekistan Airways 6 times a week and Utair up to 5 times a week;One of the largest Russian air carriers, S7 Airlines, will double the frequency of flights from Samarkand to Novosibirsk to two weekly services on Tuesdays and Thursdays;Given demand for flights from Samarkand to Istanbul, Turkish Airlines will increase flight frequency from four to 10 times a week, while Uzbekistan Airways plans to fly to Istanbul five times a week.
Alongside the route network expansion and introduction of additional frequencies, Air Marakanda continues to create opportunities for further new services.
Members of the international loyalty program DragonPass will be able to use the CIP business lounge at Samarkand International Airport on their day of departure. The CIP lounge is also linked with the international loyalty program ONPASS from the Mile-On-Air platform, to offer business lounge facilities to an expanded group of travellers.