Some of the figures that jump out at any analyst studying the rise and rise of Central Asia’s aviation industry in the past few years are quite stunning. This is brought home by research, just published by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), in a report entitled “Central Asia Takes Off: Investments in Civil Aviation Infrastructure”.
Here are a few of those eyecatching statistics from that research to start with.
• In 2025, Central Asia’s airlines carried 31.7mn passengers, nearly double the pre-pandemic (pre-2020) level.
• From 2023-2025, the annual volume of air freight flown by Central Asian cargo carriers more than quadrupled to 335,700 tonnes, not far behind the 446,700 tonnes of air cargo last year transported by Russian carriers.
• From 2015 to 2025, the capacity of Central Asia’s combined aircraft fleets grew by an average of 7.7% per year – nearly three times faster than the global market.
The report, compiled by the EDB’s Alexander Zaboev and Aidos Omarov, observes how in Central Asian aviation infrastructure is expanding at a fast rate. Foreign direct investment stock in the region’s air transport sector totals $1.4bn and, by 2035, 12 major airport development projects worth $5.1bn will be implemented or planned, it says.
“Investment opportunities span the entire industry. Demand is growing for warehouses, new aircraft, and aircraft maintenance and refueling services. Additional potential lies in low-cost carriers, intra-regional air service, and cargo transit,” adds the report.
Looking at the potential for further growth in the aviation industries of the five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – the analysis says it will require regulatory modernisation, saying: “Priorities include expanding ‘open sky’ policy, especially for cargo; improving market access conditions for airlines, including low-cost carriers; developing regional alliances; and advancing digitalization.
“Dialogue among the aviation authorities of the region’s countries, the business community, ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization], IATA [International Air Transport Association], and other international organizations, multilateral development banks, and the expert community will help coordinate solutions.”
The sustained economic growth of the five countries – their GDP, says the EDB, expanded 13-fold from $46bn to $567bn between 2000 and 2025, with the population growing from 55mn to 83mn simultaneously – has driven the development of their airlines and airport networks.
In 2025, largest Central Asian economy Kazakhstan accounted for 48.7% of all passenger air travel in Central Asia, while Uzbekistan accounted for 35%, Turkmenistan for 7%, Kyrgyzstan for 5.6% and Tajikistan for 3.7%, the report says.
It adds: “The passenger air travel market in Uzbekistan grew the fastest – tripling compared to its pre-pandemic peak (2019) and reaching 11.1 million passengers (2025).”
Uzbek airlines are also achieving big gains in air cargo. Uzbekistan accounted for around 67% of all air cargo transported by the national airlines of the five countries in 2025.
“The rapid growth in recent years has been driven by the emergence of new cargo airlines, the expansion of their aircraft fleets, the development of cargo transit between third countries, the increase in e-commerce volumes, and changes in flight routes across the Eurasian region, primarily through Russia,” the report adds.
The study also concludes that a major driver of market growth has been the entry of low-cost carriers into the market. “Their share of aircraft capacity in Central Asia reached 21% in 2025. The largest player is Kazakhstan’s FlyArystan, with a fleet of 28 aircraft,” it says, adding: “A boom in low-cost and hybrid airlines also occurred in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan Airways Express was soon joined by Silk Avia, Centrum Air, and others.”
Credit: All graphs and tables presented by this article are reprinted from the EDB report, “Central Asia Takes Off: Investments in Civil Aviation Infrastructure”.