President Shavkat Mirziyoyev criticized the state of affairs in the Uzbek civil aviation at a meeting dedicated to the development of the transport system, the presidential press service said in a statement.
The two now separate bodies - Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports have not yet properly launched their activities as independent entities, which is why reforms in this area are stalled, the President said.
Last year, the open sky regime was introduced at four airports with the introduction of the fifth freedom of the air. However, not a single foreign airline has yet been engaged. “The current state of affairs has caused negative feedbacks from the public, that is why foreign airlines are preferred to NAC,” the statement said.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to complete the reforms based on the recommendations of the World Bank and to create a competitive environment.
The tasks have been identified to introduce open skies policy at Navoi and Termez airports for their transformation into cargo hubs and attraction of foreign freight carriers.
He also gave instructions to fundamentally reform the railway system.
At another meeting on the same day, dedicated to the tourism development, the President pointed to the poor service quality on planes and trains, as well as expensive fares.
The Ministry of Transport and the Tourism Development Committee instructed to open new flights, increase the number of high-speed train services and lower ticket fares.
He also pointed to the shortcomings in the field of automobile and public transport. He pointed to the need to hold open tenders for servicing routes, review fares and passenger transportation procedures, and digitizing the sphere of motor transport services.
He instructed to accelerate the development of a Roads Development Strategy with the involvement of foreign experts.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev also set the task for the Ministry of Transport to completely review the transit policies, noting that Uzbekistan’s transport and transit potential is far from being fully tapped.
