Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Due to abnormal frosts, the airports of Uzbekistan received permission to let people, meeting passengers, into the terminal building. Previously, the admission of people to the building was limited by the documents of a number of structures operating at airports.

Starting today, all those who meet passengers will be able to get into the arrivals halls and wait for arriving passengers inside the terminal, up to the customs area.

“We are very glad that finally we were heard and the country's leadership made a strong-willed decision. I know the problem has been around for years. People stood outside in the heat and cold, and for security reasons and for a number of other reasons they were not allowed inside. The arrivals hall, built in 2018, also does not meet international standards; it simply does not provide an area for greeters. He is very tight. We are currently developing a project to increase the arrivals area by moving the front of the building forward, where it will be possible to create normal conditions for those who meet. The process is complicated by the fact that many communications have been laid in this territory. And whenever we try to remake, expand, make the existing airport more convenient, we understand that the capital simply needs to build a new air harbor. But given that airports are not built in one day, we will still reconstruct the current one as much as possible,” said Rano Juraeva, Chairman of the Board of Uzbekistan Airports.

It should be noted that in conditions of abnormal frosts, airport services pay increased attention to flight safety. Adverse weather conditions - freezing temperatures, snowfall - imply the process of treating aircraft with anti-icing fluid to ensure flight safety. While this process usually takes about 30 minutes per aircraft, during snowfall, each aircraft took from 1 to 1.5 hours. Of course, this led to flight delays. With such weather anomalies in a number of countries around the world, there is a practice of closing airports. But the airports of Uzbekistan decided to work, informing passengers about changes in the schedule.

“Today I can say with confidence that our airports have sufficient resources for the stable implementation of takeoff and landing operations in difficult weather conditions. We are talking not only about machines, but also about qualified personnel with international experience. The busiest in terms of passenger traffic is the Tashkent airport - more than a hundred flights a day. The handling company and the airfield service accumulated all reserve forces on the eve of worsening weather conditions. So, on the peak day, January 10, from 00:00 to 23:59, 152 flights were served by the international airports of Uzbekistan, of which Tashkent served 93 flights. This is a very high figure, considering that it took more than an hour to spray each aircraft and a whole fleet of cars went out to clean the runway and taxiways, not to mention the people who worked on the airfield in such a cold,” Rano Juraeva added.