he airline ticket search service Aviasales.uz conducted a study on what has changed in the travel industry of Uzbekistanis in 2020 – there is a demand for travel, there are few opportunities.
With countries’ borders closed for most of the year, demand for air travel fell by only 20%, while ticket sales fell 73% year-over-year. “This is due to the fact that the borders of many countries are still closed, and a limited number of flights fly to open directions,” says Ruslan Baiganurov, head of Aviasales.uz.
The top 3 countries remained unchanged – Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey. The 4th place in the ranking in 2019 was occupied by South Korea, which this year went down to 7th place. China has disappeared from the list of popular countries. This year, Uzbeks more often bought tickets to the UAE and Ukraine – they occupy the fifth and sixth places.
The cost of air travel has become higher: it has become more expensive to fly to Russia by 11%, this year the average cost of a flight was US$220 (one way), the price of a flight to Kazakhstan increased the most – by 65%, to reach Kazakhstan on average it cost US$231 , to fly to Turkey cost an average of US$337, which is 14% more expensive than last year.
Domestic flights have also risen in price. The average cost of a flight within Uzbekistan is US$51, which is 24% more expensive than last year.
Among the destinations with the highest demand for the first half of 2021 were Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, UAE, Belarus, USA, South Korea, Ukraine, China and Egypt.
