President Shavkat Mirziyoyev familiarized himself with the presentation of the project of the new Bukhara international airport on Wednesday. 

According to the presidential press service, the old airport, which has 400 passengers per hour or 1 million passengers annual throughput, had been failing to meet the demand of the population and tourists. 

Reportedly, an outdated flight control and passenger service systems, as well as waiting rooms, limit the possibility of increasing the number of flights. Most tourists are forced to fly to Tashkent, Samarkand or Urgench to get to Bukhara. For example, 95% of more than 1 million foreign tourists who visited Bukhara over 9 months arrived by train or car. 

A hotel network and pilgrimage tourism are developing in the area. In the next three years, it is planned to increase the tourists flow to Bukhara to 8 million people. 

In this regard, on May 31, during the president’s trip to the province, the new international airport project was launched in Bukhara province. Within the framework of the project, infrastructure that meets international standards will be created on the basis of public-private partnership. 

The airport will be able to serve 1,200 passengers per hour, or over 3 million per year. By improving the quality of passenger and aircraft service, it is planned to attract new international airlines. 

The presentation provided information on the feasibility study of the project. 

The head of state emphasized the need to double the capacity of the new airport and create the ability to receive and send 8 aircraft per hour. He also gave recommendations on creating conditions in the terminal, its interior and exterior. 

The CEO of Uzbekistan Airports Zhavlonbek Umarkhodjaev said that the new airport would be located 26 km from the downtown Bukhara. 307 hectares of land have been allocated for its construction (the provincial governor reported 380 hectares).