Summary
- Air Samarkand completes its inaugural flight with a full cabin on March 21, according to the Western Hemisphere spring solstice.
- The airline plans to extend weekly frequency on the Istanbul route & add recent destinations shortly.
- The carrier is recruiting prospective cabin crews, who surprisingly require candidates to carry foreign passports.
Uzbekistan welcomes its latest carrier, Air Samarkand. Based in the town with which it shares its name, the airline accomplished its first flight utilizing an Airbus A321neo. The historic event took place on March 21, coinciding with the normal holiday of Navruz. That is the day of the vernal equinox, which marks the start of spring within the Northern Hemisphere. Based on the airline, the brand new service departed with a complete cabin of 221 passengers and returned from Istanbul with 188 customers onboard.
![Close-up photo of an Airbus A321 in Air Samarkand livery.](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/air-samarkand-a321_03.jpg)
Inside Air Samarkand: Launch, Growth & Route Ambitions
CEO of Uzbek start-up airline Air Samarkand, Anton Khojayan, has detailed the carriers’ plans in an interview with Easy Flying.
Photo: Air Samarkand
Zafar Butayev, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Air Samarkand (C7), had this to say concerning the landmark occasion,
This can be a big day for our airline, our first scheduled service that has been delivered after months of preparation. We’re delighted to cement the long-standing business and cultural ties between Turkey and Uzbekistan by operating a primary, and notably full scheduled flight to Istanbul. We’re already experiencing huge demand for services, as demonstrated by those traveling on these first services, and plan to extend the weekly frequency of this route, in addition to announcing other recent routes for Air Samarkand within the near future.
Photo : Air Samarkand
The airline will operate this recent route twice every week on Mondays and Thursdays and plans so as to add additional destinations to its route network, including Tbilisi, Dubai, and Jeddah, in addition to other undisclosed destinations throughout Turkey.
In step with the carrier’s growth ambitions, their website shows they’re actively recruiting cabin crew. Interestingly, prospective candidates are expected to carry a foreign passport, and only Uzbek residents will need to have proficiency within the local language.
Some background on Air Samarkand
Readers may recall we featured Air Samarkand because the airline startup of the week in November of last 12 months. It’s one among Central Asia’s newest carriers, based in Uzbekistan’s second-largest city. The airline has a fleet of state-of-the-art Airbus aircraft, corresponding to their A321neo registered UK32121 and a legacy twin-aisle A330-300 registered UK33001. In November, Bakhtiyor Fazylov, the founding father of Air Samarkand, told Easy Flying:
The launch of this recent airline is a big event for the longer term development of Uzbekistan as a tourism, cultural, and business center. We’re delighted to welcome Air Samarkand’s first aircraft, which is able to soon operate competitive direct flights with protected and quality service to the preferred international destinations.
Over the past 12 months we have now implemented a large-scale project to develop the Silk Road Samarkand Tourist Centre, which has already begun to bring the tourism potential of the region to a qualitatively recent level, combining ancient heritage with modern infrastructure and facilities.
Over the past 12 months we have now implemented a large-scale project to develop the Silk Road Samarkand Tourist Centre, which has already begun to bring the tourism potential of the region to a qualitatively recent level, combining ancient heritage with modern infrastructure and facilities.
Uzbek aviation is taking off
Photo: Marina Wealthy | Shutterstock
The central Asian nation now has two full-service airlines calling it home. The flag carrier Uzbekistan Airways relies in Tashkent, the nation’s capital, and now C7 relies within the famous Silk Road city of Samarkand.
Tashkent Airport can be seeing development. Qatar Airways launched direct flights between Doha and the Uzbek capital earlier this 12 months. The news is that C7’s first scheduled flight was a hit. That, combined with foreign interest in connecting the country, shows that tourism and air travel are recovering well from the downturn experienced over the past few years.
What do you think that of Air Samarkand’s first flight? Have you ever flown to Uzbekistan? How was it? Tell us within the comments below.