Direct flights between the capitals of Uzbekistan and Poland will start operating in March this year. An agreement on this was reached in December 2022 between Uzbekistan Airways JSC and the Polish airline LOT Polish Airlines (a member of Star Alliance).
In accordance with the decision, from March this year, the flights will be operated once every 10 days on Boeing-787 aircraft of the Polish airline company.
This decision was preceded by long negotiations between Uzbekistan and Poland, which were regularly held in Warsaw over the past 3 years at various levels.
In August 2022, a delegation headed by the Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Ilhom Makhkamov visited Poland to negotiate with Polish partners on the state and prospects for cooperation in the field of transport. Meetings were held with the leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Poland and LOT Polish Airlines, with whom the issue of opening direct flights between Tashkent and Warsaw in 2023 was discussed. The delegation also visited and got acquainted with the activities of the Mission Control Center. Later, the issue was also discussed between the aviation departments of the two countries.
In connection with the steady growth of tourist and business exchanges between Uzbekistan and Poland, as well as the need to create conditions for the further growth of tourist flow to Uzbekistan, including from Eastern European countries, the opening of direct flights between the cities of Tashkent and Warsaw is very relevant.
According to the Ministry of Tourism of Poland, out of the 38 million Polish population, 16 million people have an interest and financial opportunities for international tourism once a year. Of these, 6 million travel twice a year. At the same time, Polish tourists have already visited the countries of America, China, Egypt, and Turkey and would like to discover new routes, especially Uzbekistan. In the future, with proper information and advertising support, the possibility of launching weekly or twice-a-week flights will increase significantly.
The lack of direct air communication between Uzbekistan and Poland was the reason for the significantly high cost of tours to Uzbekistan. This is due to the forced use of 4 flights - two flights in both directions. For this reason, it was unprofitable for Polish tour operators to purchase tours to Uzbekistan and develop this direction.
The opening of direct flights will help reduce the cost of tours and significantly increase the flow of tourists from Poland and neighboring European countries to Uzbekistan.
