The German airline Lufthansa intends to return to the market of Uzbekistan.
This was declared in the course of the negotiations between Deputy PM Aziz Abdukhakimov and Regional Director of Lufthansa in the CIS Ronald Schultz.
The parties discussed possibility of developing regular flights between Uzbekistan and Germany. During the talks, the Uzbek side proposed Lufthansa to consider the possibility of organizing regular flights to Uzbekistan.
Ronald Schulz noted that he had arrived in Uzbekistan to study the possibilities for the airline to re-enter the Uzbek market. Now Lufthansa intends to transfer its flights on the route “Frankfurt-Baku-Ashgabat” to “Frankfurt-Baku-Tashkent”. In this case, at the initial stage, it is planned to make three flights a week.
In turn, the Uzbek side expressed its readiness to assist on the matter. At the meeting, the issue of introducing the “open sky” principle for a number of regional airports in Uzbekistan, including Karshi and Andijan airports, was also discussed. Thus, it is possible to turn one of the regional airports of Uzbekistan into a transit hub for Lufthansa.
In addition, the parties noted that the German airline can use Uzbekistan as a transit aviation hub for flights from Europe to Southeast Asia.
It should be recalled that Lufthansa entered the Uzbek market in 1993. But due to the general decline in passenger traffic by 20-25% in 2001, the airline ceased flights to Tashkent. In March 2010, Lufthansa re-entered the airspace of Uzbekistan, opening a direct flight from Munich to Tashkent. It was also closed eventually.
