Samarkand International Airport one of Europe’s fastest growing

Samarkand International Airport (SKD) has one of the highest growth records of any airport in Europe, official figures underline.

New data released by the European airport industry organisation ACI Europe, show that SKD has grown by 158.9% since pre-Covid pandemic figures of 2019. This represents the third-largest growth of any airport measured by ACI Europe, which represents over 500 airports in 55 countries. 

SKD is second-only, in terms of growth, to the Albanian capital of Tirana among medium-size airports. It saw passenger numbers increase by 232.3%, while Babimost in western Poland led the small airport section by growing 164.6%. 

This is a first time that Samarkand has been classed in the ‘Medium’ size airport category for facilities with between 1-10 million annual passengers, having surpassed the one million-mark for a first ever year in 2023. Since opening its new international terminal at the beginning of 2022, SKD has more than doubled passenger volumes in each of the past two years and been ranked among the top 10 regional airport leaders in the Central Asian region by the World Airport Awards (SKYTRAX) international airport rating. 

Ulugbek Shamsikulov, newly appointed CEO of Air Marakanda, says: "The progressive policies of our Government and investment by our owner in this 21st century, state-of-the-art airport, are together delivering passenger growth. But we are only just embarking on our journey to attract further visitors to Samarkand and Uzbekistan, who will help to drive growth in our economy.” 

Mr Shamsikulov continues: “We see significant demand for domestic and international travel from this area and from airlines bringing overseas visitors to explore our incredible ancient city of Samarkand. We will continue to grow our network during the summer season, as airlines increase capacity on existing routes and as we open new city connections with Samarkand.” 

SKD continues to outstrip average passenger growth figures achieved elsewhere, ACI Europe reporting a 10.2% increase in March carryings against 2023. Traffic came close to full recovery from pre-pandemic volumes, ending just -1.5% below March 2019 figures. ACI says figures for Q1 2024 are 10.2% up on last year and just -1.3% below Q1 2019. 

Samarkand International Airport is among only 43% of airports in Europe to have shown growth when compared to pre-pandemic passenger volumes. It is well ahead of the 2.8% average growth in the Europe3 region that incorporates the nations of Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. 

SKD recently highlighted its 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.  In the first three months of 2024, some 294,000 passengers have used the ultra-modern airport terminal, a 39% increase on the same period of 2023. 

Airport management company Air Marakanda says there has been a big increase in the number of carriers using SKD for a 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 has 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.

 

Air Marakanda says among the new spring-summer season 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;

China Southern Airlines, the largest airline in Asia in terms of fleet size, will resume a once weekly connection from Samarkand to Urumqi (China), from June;

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;

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.

 

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