A record 3 million people number of passengers will have fliown on Uzbekistan Airways by the year-end, a 16% increase to 2017, the company announced.
In January-October, the company carried 2.6 million passengers (2.2 million in the same period of 2017), of which 908.1 thousand are from non-CIS countries (783 thousand in 2017), more than 1.2 million from CIS countries (1.06 million) and more than 510 thousand domestic passengers (411.7 thousand).
"These figures were achieved through higher passenger load with less number of flights," the company said. The number of flights completed in January-October was 18.4 thousand, and in the same period last year - 19.4 thousand.
In domestic destinations, the increase in passenger traffic was 24%. According to the company, this has been achieved “through the use of a flexible system of discounts and optimization of the aircraft fleet”. Il-114 aircraft (52 seats), which were replaced by A-320 aircraft (150 seats), were taken out of service.
Seat occupancy in 10 months was recorded at 79.4% (78.9% in the same period of 2017), of which 74.9% (74.5%) on non-CIS flights, and CIS countries - 86, 6% (86.5%) and on domestic flights - 67.1% (62.2%).
To ensure comfortable conditions for tourists when visiting the Uzbekistan’s ancient cities, company launched Urgench-Bukhara flights. In addition, direct flights from Milan, Paris, Rome and Frankfurt to Urgench were launched during tourist season.
Year-to-date, the company opened new flights to Vladivostok, Jeddah and Mumbai; the number of flights to Istanbul, Moscow, Paris, Minsk, Urgench, Bukhara and other cities has been increased.
The company set new prices for domestic flights. “A ticket for the Tashkent-Samarkand flight costs from 9 euros, to Namangan or Fergana from 10 euros,” the company said. - For comparison, a flight on domestic flights en route Almaty-Astana (1.5 hours) costs from 90 euros, while for the flight Tashkent-Nukus (1.5 hours) the price is from 43 euros.”