Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 5th May 2025:

Uzbek carrier Air Samarkand has operated its latest international scheduled service, to the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv, and announced a doubling of weekly capacity from July to meet surging customer demand.

The new weekly service operated for a first time on Sunday with a modern Air Samarkand Airbus A330 aircraft and will continue every Sunday. The first flight departed from Samarkand in Uzbekistan on schedule at 06:00 am and arrived in Tel Aviv five and a half hours later, at 09:25 am local time. The return service departed from Tel Aviv at 11:20 am, arriving back in the historic city of Samarkand at 18:40 pm local time.

Given high levels of passenger demand, Air Samarkand used the inaugural service to announce a doubling of route capacity starting from July, with a second return to be operated on every Thursday. Services will be operated by Airbus 330 (with 313 seats) or Airbus A321 (194 seats) aircraft according to load factors.

“The opening of regular flights to Tel Aviv represents an important step in the development of ties between Uzbekistan and Israel,” said Zafar Butayev, CEO of Air Samarkand. “We are seeing steady interest in this route from tourist, pilgrim and business travellers, and are delighted to confirm a second service starting from July. This will meet growing demand for a convenient and competitive direct service that links our two culturally rich cities and represents another important step forward in the expansion of the Air Samarkand route network,” he said.

These latest developments coincide with recent initiatives to strengthen the cooperation between Uzbekistan and Israel across trade, migration, and other social and economic spheres.

Tel Aviv is the latest part of Air Samarkand’s strategy to expand its international route network. In 2025, the airline plans to increase the frequency of services to key destinations and add new international city destinations. It continues to develop its fleet by investing in modern aircraft and improving customer service to strengthen its position in the Central Asian market.

In 2024 Air Samarkand began its first scheduled services in March to the Turkish capital of Istanbul, and subsequently opened destinations to Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in the UAE, the religious Saudi cities of Jeddah and Medina, the tourism hot-spots of Nha Trang and Phú Quốc in Vietnam, and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from both Samarkand and Tashkent.