Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 19 February, the First International Aviation Forum “Uzbekistan Airports, Aviation & Logistics Forum” started in the capital’s Uzexpocenter exhibition complex. The forum was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister - Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the Development of Tourism, Aziz Abdukhakimov.

 “Improving the transport system is one of the most important conditions for the development of tourism. That is why today the President of Uzbekistan pays great attention to the aviation industry. In this regard, the Ministry of Transport was created to improve public administration, and Uzbekistan Havo Yollari was split into two independent companies, Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports. At the same time, from 1 October 2019, in accordance with international legal numbers in the international airports “Karshi”, “Nukus”, “Termez” and “Bukhara”, the “Open Skies” mode was introduced. We are currently negotiating with a number of foreign airlines on the organization of flights to these airports,” said Aziz Abdukhakimov.

It should be noted that the number of foreign airlines operating in Uzbekistan over the past three years, in the framework of attracting foreign airlines, increased from 15 to 23.

Over the past period, new airlines, such as IrAero, FlyDubai and Zagros Airlines, have established regular flights to the country, Zhejang Loong Airlines Co. Ltd. and Atlasglobal organized charter flights.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Transport Elyor Ganiev also spoke about the work being done to increase the flow of tourists and improve the transport system.

“A number of major infrastructure projects are planned to improve the condition of airports. In particular, the construction of a new passenger terminal and runway at the Samarkand International Airport will increase the airport capacity from 500 passengers per hour to 1,500. With the participation of German experts, as a result of optimizing the capacity and reconstruction, the capacity for servicing airport passengers will increase from 4 million up to 7 million a year. As a result of the construction of a new runway at the Termez international airport, the reconstruction of Andijan airport, the opportunity will be created to serve all types of aircraft, the number of flights will increase by 2-3 times, ”the Minister of Transport said.

According to Elyor Ganiev, for the high-quality implementation of these measures in accordance with international best practices, World Bank experts were involved. They are directly involved in the development of an aviation development strategy aimed at liberalizing the aviation market and introducing modern management methods in this area.

According to Ravshan Ismoilov, Chairman of Uzbekistan Airports JSC, who began operations in 2019, a program has been developed to renovate the airports in Uzbekistan, which will serve the implementation of a long-term development strategy for our airports, attract investment, strengthen cooperation with international companies and optimize passenger services.

“Experts from Germany (Airport Research Center Gmbh) and Russia (Innovation Center for Civil Aviation LLC”) were involved to develop a practical airport development strategy,” said Ravshan Ismailov.

Representatives of the following companies participate in plenary meetings held as part of the air forum. Many international experts participated in these sessions, such as Charles Sklumberger (World Bank), Askhat Torshin (Lufthansa Consulting), Amir Otakiy (Bombardier), Camil Al-Avadhi (Kuwait Airways), Aitach Mastalieva (Amadeus), Ralph Weber (Airbus ), Alexey Sinitsky (AtoEvents) who shared their experience in the development of tourism and transport systems.

The first international aviation forum was organized by the State Committee for Tourism Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Transport, Uzbekistan Airways JSC in conjunction with the Fair Exhibition Organizers (UAE).