According to Air Marakanda, the managing company, the international airport of Samarkand saw a 47% increase in passenger traffic in the first half of the year, reaching 647,000 passengers.

Since the company's inception, passenger traffic at Samarkand Airport has been steadily increasing. In 2023, the airport served 1,010,938 passengers for the first time in its history. This figure is 104.9% higher, or 517,521 more passengers than in 2022.

Additionally, since the beginning of 2024, the airport has expanded its route network. In the first half of the year, flights were operated from Samarkand on 2 domestic and 24 international routes.

The most popular destinations in the first half of the year were flights from Samarkand to Moscow, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, and Dubai. These routes served approximately 613,000 passengers in total. Domestic flights carried 34,000 passengers.

The company highlighted that the rapid growth in passenger traffic is due not only to the increased number of flights by existing airlines but also to the attraction of new partners.

"The main goal of the company is to make Samarkand and Uzbekistan more attractive to tourists by adhering to global standards for aviation services, and the growth in passenger traffic indicates the successful achievement of this goal," said Air Marakanda shareholder Bakhtiyor Fazilov.

Air Marakanda is the operator responsible for ground handling and management of the new terminal at Samarkand International Airport. This is part of the first public-private partnership (PPP) project in Uzbekistan's aviation industry. For three consecutive years, the new international terminal of Samarkand Airport has ranked among the top ten regional leaders in Central Asia according to the World Airport Awards (SKYTRAX). In 2023, the airport ranked 3rd in its category for passenger traffic growth according to ACI EUROPE.