New passenger terminal at Andijan airport slated for year-end completion

Image: Uzbekistan Airports

Construction of the new passenger terminal at Andijan Airport (AZN) is on track for completion by late 2026, state operator Uzbekistan Airports announced. Once commissioned, the upgraded facility will boost the airport’s annual capacity to 1.1 million passengers.

Located in the densely populated Fergana Valley—home to over 3.5 million residents—and bordering Kyrgyzstan, Andijan holds strategic potential for regional air traffic expansion and cross-border connectivity.

Spanning 19,650 square meters, the new terminal is eight times larger than the original 1979 facility. Peak-hour capacity will increase fivefold to 1,000 passengers per hour. Structural and assembly work on the terminal building is currently around 40% complete.

Airfield infrastructure upgrades are progressing concurrently and feature:

• 10 new parking stands for large aircraft
• Two new taxiways, including a high-speed exit
• Upgraded perimeter security and power distribution networks
• Modern CAT-compliant aeronautical ground lighting (AGL) systems

In the first half of the year, AZN processed 117,000 passengers, 85,500 of whom traveled on international routes.

Recent airfield enhancements enable widebody operations. In July, Saudi LCC Flyadeal launched scheduled Airbus A330 service from Medina, followed in August by a Boeing 747-400F freighter operated by Challenge Air Cargo—a milestone Uzbekistan Airports cites as proof of AZN’s evolving technical capability.

Unlike public-private partnership (PPP)-driven modernizations at Samarkand, Urgench, Bukhara, and Namangan, the Andijan redevelopment is fully funded and executed directly by Uzbekistan Airports. Saudi investment group Vision Invest expressed initial interest in managing AZN in 2024 before redirecting capital toward the new Tashkent airport consortium project.

Andijan reopened to commercial traffic last March following a two-year operational pause for initial airfield reconstruction.