More flights to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva: talks with Turkish Airlines and Air Arabia

Two large airlines want to bring more travellers straight to the Silk Road cities. In the second week of October 2026 Uzbekistan’s Tourism Committee held talks with Turkish Airlines and Air Arabia about new flights and joint offers for tourists.

Turkish Airlines: via Istanbul

Turkish Airlines already flies 42 times a week to Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench, the airport for Khiva. The sides agreed to work on special tourist fares from priority cities and on ready-made packages that enter Uzbekistan through one city and leave through another. Routes from Amsterdam, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Prague and Budapest will be studied further, and a memorandum of cooperation is due to be signed at the end of October 2026.

Air Arabia: from Sharjah and Abu Dhabi

Air Arabia serves Tashkent and Namangan, with 13 flights a week between Tashkent and Sharjah or Abu Dhabi. At a meeting on 8 October it discussed direct flights to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, more frequent flights from Tashkent and transit travellers from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. No launch dates have been set yet.

Our advice

Flying into one city and out of another is how we like to plan: start in Khiva or Bukhara, finish in Samarkand or Tashkent, with the fast train in between. Our tour finder builds a route like this around your flights.