Samarkand Airport to start its international operation from April 1

The head of Uzbekistan Airports, Rano Jurayeva, announced that the new Samarkand airport will start serving at full capacity the international flights from April 1.

"Now we are completing the commissioning of the airport, where a new service technology has been introduced that can increase capacity through new customs and border control, passenger and baggage registration services," the head of the company said during the panel discussion "Horizons for attracting investment in the tourism sector" at the Tashkent International Investment Forum.

Rano Jurayeva noted that the Samarkand airport is a modern and to some extent experimental project.

"The most difficult thing was to build an airfield and an air terminal without stopping the work of the airport. Flights were suspended for about a month before the opening of the airfield complex," she said.

 "Each of us had our own investment program. The state partner had the task to build an airfield, the private partner had a terminal," the head of Uzbekistan Airports explained.

The construction project of the new terminal was implemented within the framework of the first public-private partnership agreement in the history of aviation in Uzbekistan between the foreign company Air Maracanda and the state partner Uzbekistan Airports.

The new terminal allows to serve 40 to 120 flights per week, and the revamped apron can facilitate up to 24 aircraft parking spaces.