Uzbekistan is a newly independent country and a very attractive tourist destination in Central Asia. The country features millennia of historical background, starting from ancient Buddhism and Zoroastrinism religions, through the legendary Great Silk Road from China and India to Europe, medieval kingdoms of Tamerlane. The great monuments of architecture in Samarkand and Bukhara attract thousands of travelers annually.
The trip to Uzbekistan usually starts with a question: how to get there? Uzbekistan is located in the very center of Central Asia, surrounded by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Moreover, it is a double landlocked country, (the only one but Liechtenstein in the whole world), which means that there is no sea, no ports, and to reach the nearest sea port you need to cross borders of at least one more country.
Trains arrive in Uzbekistan, though their quality remains quite low. The busiest rail routes run through Kazakhstan to Russia, and mainly serve local people, who are not too demanding for the quality of service as they prefer cheaper options. Also, it takes about three days to ride from Moscow, and in the warm season it can be a genuine ordeal as the trains have no air conditioners.
The only feasible option, therefore, is to come to Uzbekistan by plane. There are now many international airlines who operate flights to the country, such as Turkish Airlines, AirBaltic, Russian Aeroflot, Czech Airlines, Koreana, Asiana Airlines etc. The national air carrier, Uzbekistan Airways, or ‘Uzbek Khavo Yullari’, is the sole national air company in the country.
Uzbekistan Airways was founded after independence in 1991, and gained a reputation of a reliable and quality carrier, with a good safety record. The airways operate a fleet of Russian-made and modern western aircraft, the latter are mainly used for international routes. The company operate flights to major world destinations, including Europe, Northern America, and Asia.
You can purchase a ticket to Uzbekistan from a variety of air companies, but inside the country, for domestic routes, there is only one: the Uzbekistan Airways. Because of that they offer significant discounts when you purchase an international flight plus a local flight. For example, many travel itineraries are built on a circular route: Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva and then back to Tashkent. The ending part of such a tour would usually include a flight Tashkent-Urgench (Khiva), which you can purchase along with the international tickets.
There is, however, one problem with Uzbekistan Airways: they don’t sell air tickets online. To purchase a ticket, you need to visit an office of Uzbekistan Airways in your country in person. Or, as an option, you can send your passports by mail. What if there is no office nearby?
This obstacle leaves many people unhappy, as they fail to book Uzbek Airways through their travel agent. A solution to this problem is simple: you need to find a local agent in Uzbekistan who would purchase tickets for you locally and then send it to you by regular mail if you prefer hard copy tickets, or just by email. Fortunately, the Airways have recently introduced e-tickets, and now this can be sent to you by email as a scan.
One of such flight booking agents is Uzbekistan-Airways.Info. You can see the flight schedule, offices of Uzbekistan Airways, and place a request to purchase a ticket of Uzbekistan Airways in their website.
Please, note that purchasing an air ticket via Uzbekistan-Airways.Info can provide significant rebates as compared to foreign agents, because when tickets are bought locally, they are bought for local currency, soums, and inside the country there is a tricky situation with exchange rates, where the official rate can be 50% lower than the black market rate. If you exploit this, you can win up to 10% rebate for your tickets to Uzbekistan.
The Uzbekistan-Airways.Info agent accepts various forms of payments, such as bank transfer, money sending systems such as Western Union, or your credit cards via PayPal.
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RJ-85 of Uzbekistan Airlines |
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