A new report by Airports Council International (ACI) has identified Samarkand International Airport as the fastest-growing airport in Europe and Central Asia. Over the past five years, the airport’s passenger traffic has increased by 186%.
Samarkand International Airport has benefited from a major public-private investment, a partnership between entrepreneur Bakhityor Fazilov and the Uzbek government. The expanded and modernised terminal, which opened in 2022, has significantly boosted the airport’s traffic.
“At the turn of this decade and together with our government we had a vision to develop tourism in Samarkand. We have married new infrastructure and facilities – like our airport and the Silk Road Samarkand tourist center – with the unique historic and traditional features of this city. We are now seeing the fruits of that investment, with our airport now becoming one of the world’s fastest growing”, stated Fazilov.
Not only did Samarkand Airport experience a 186% growth over the past five years, but it also recorded 1.38 million passengers in 2024, marking a 36.6% increase compared to 2023. The number of take-off and landing operations at the airport grew by 23% in 2024, reaching 11,000 flight arrivals and departures.
“Our growth is a reward for the visionary investment made in our ultra-modern 21st century Samarkand airport terminal during a challenging global epidemic. These figures underline the pent-up demand for air travel in this historic region and Samarkand’s position as a fast-emerging center for tourism and commerce in Central Asia”, said Ulugbek Shamsikulov, CEO of Air Marakanda, the airport management company.
Samarkand International Airport currently serves 23 international and three domestic destinations, with some of the most popular routes including Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Jeddah, and Moscow. In 2024, several new destinations were added, including Xi’an (China), Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), Turkestan (Kazakhstan), and the Russian cities of Tyumen, Nizhny Novgorod, and Irkutsk.
Looking ahead, Air Marakanda plans to expand its route network further and enhance the overall service quality at the airport.
“Air Marakanda will continue to work with our airline partners to further expand our route network, to improve the quality of service for all customers and to modernise our infrastructure with the introduction of digital services to simplify passenger interactions”, explained Shamsikulov.
Following Samarkand, the airport of Olbia, located on the Italian island of Sardinia, was the second fastest-growing airport in Europe and Central Asia, with an 18.4% growth in 2024 compared to 2023.
Finally, ACI data show that overall passenger numbers in 2024 were 1.8% above those of 2019 and 7.4% highercompared to 2023. However, 47% of airports are still lagging behind their pre-pandemic volumes.
