On March 18, 2022, the grand opening of the new terminal of the International Airport took place in Samarkand. The new terminal of Samarkand airport handled its inaugural flight, flown by Uzbekistan Airways HY-045/046, from Tashkent to Samarkand and back. The successfully handled flight opened a new chapter in the history of modern aviation of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Samarkand International Airport, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Transport, Uzbekistan Airports JSC and Uzbekistan Airways JSC arranged a media trip for media representatives.
The opening ceremony was attended by more than 250 people. Achilbay Ramatov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Ilhom Mahkamov, Minister of Transport, Erkinjon Turdimov, Governor of Samarkand Region, Rano Juraeva, Chairman of the Board of Uzbekistan Airports, and Khilmi Yilmaz, Deputy General Director for Operations of AIR MARAKANDA provided a solemn speech at the ceremony.
The construction of the new terminal worth over 80 million dollars has been implemented as a result of the first of its kind in the history of Uzbek aviation, the public-private partnership agreement between private enterprise AIR MARAKANDA LLC and state partner Uzbekistan Airports JSC. The construction work was conducted by Enter Engineering, a leading EPC contractor in Uzbekistan, based on an architectural solution developed by Kiklop, a Turkish design-engineering company.
AIR MARAKANDA’s Deputy General Director of Operations, Hilmi Yilmaz, said:
“On behalf of the entire staff of AIR MARAKANDA, I thank our government and all partners, without whom the implementation of such a large-scale project would have been impossible.” "I am sure that Samarkand International Airport, as one of the region’s most important infrastructure facilities, will stimulate economic growth and business development in the adjacent areas, creating jobs for the local population and benefit society as a whole. An airport is the first thing you see when you arrive in a country and the last thing you see when you leave. I hope Samarkand International Airport will become a ‘visiting card’ of Uzbekistan.”
The new terminal allows to increase the number of regular flights from 40 to 120 per week, and the upgrade of the apron allowed to increase the number of aircraft parking spaces up to 24. The airport plans to increase its network to over 30 destinations by 2030. Comparatively, the Samarkand Airport served five destinations in 2019. An independent research conducted by the research firm Lufthansa Consulting forecasts an increase in annual passenger traffic from 480,000 to two million people.
The new air-terminal complex has been constructed in compliance with international standards, with due account for the requirements for servicing the passengers with mobility impairments. The terminal comprises 29 check-in desks, 8 boarding gates, 4 telescopic passageways, 10 passport control booths and 6 E-gates for departing passengers as well as 15 passport control booths for arriving passengers. Other upgrades include 3.1 km runway, 24 parking spaces