The construction of Tashkent's new international airport is scheduled to begin in July. This was announced on May 5 by Deputy Minister of Transport Jasurbek Choriev on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank meeting in Samarkand.
According to him, the public-private partnership (PPP) agreement for the project is in its final stage and should be signed by mid-May. “We will start construction of Tashkent's new international airport in July. This is already certain. The PPP agreement must be signed by mid-May. It is currently in its final stage. Once signed, it will be briefly reviewed by the government, and as soon as we receive approval, we will begin construction. The president has given a clear instruction to start work from July,” he said.
The deputy minister emphasized that the project participants are ready, referring to a large consortium. “The participants are already ready; a large consortium has been formed. We need to sign the main document outlining all the conditions from both the private investor and the state partner,” Choriev stated.
He noted that the state will not assume specific obligations to provide passengers for the airport. “There are forecasts, and they are very good. We have an annual growth of around 30%. This is a very high indicator. For this, infrastructure development is crucial. We understand that by 2029, our current airport will have fully exhausted its capacity. Therefore, we need to open a new airport with at least double the capacity for aircraft arrivals and departures,” he stressed.
Regarding the fate of the existing Tashkent airport, the deputy minister said that once the new one opens, the old one is planned to be closed. “There is a conceptual solution, agreed conditions with the private partner. If we open the new one, we must close the old one. This is logical. What exactly will be on its site is still unknown,” Choriev said.
The “New Tashkent” international airport will be built on a 1,300-hectare site in the Urta Chirchik and Quyi Chirchik districts of Tashkent region. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched the construction in October 2025.
The decision to build a new airport was made because passenger traffic to the capital has tripled over the past eight years, reaching 9 million people annually, and is expected to exceed 24 million by 2040. The current airport, located within the city, has a capacity of 11 million passengers.
The facility will be built on a PPP basis. The consortium includes: The project is developed in four phases. The first phase, costing $2.5 billion, includes the construction of the airport terminal and airfield.
Upon completion, the airport will be able to handle 20 million passengers and 129,000 tons of cargo annually, with up to 30 takeoffs and landings per hour and simultaneous accommodation of 62 aircraft.
The new airport complex will be directly connected to the Tashkent-Samarkand, Tashkent-Andijan, and Tashkent-Bostanlyk highways. A railway station for high-speed trains will also be built, and bus service will be established between the centers of Tashkent and New Tashkent.
Source: www.gazeta.uz