Flydubai launches direct flights to Uzbekistan

The airline will begin flying from Dubai to Tashkent in March this year

Aerial view of Uzbekistan's capital city, Tashkent. The country is considering allowing a foreign operator to take over its struggling state-owned airline. Image courtesy of flydubai

Travelling to Uzbekistan is about to get easier as Flydubai has announced direct flights to the capital of the relatively undiscovered Central Asian country.

From March 11, the Dubai to Tashkent service will begin operations as a five-weekly service. This will increase to a daily flight from May 31, 2019.

The announcement sees Flydubai become the first national carrier in the UAE to offer direct flights to Uzbekistan. The country joins the airline’s growing list of central Asian destinations which includes Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Almaty and Astana.

With a journey time of less than four hours, the flight will run as a codeshare with Emirates on a brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft departing from Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport. Economy fares for the route start at Dh1,545 and business class tickets start from Dh7,500.

Once a major stop on the Silk Road, Uzbekistan is a fascinating time warp of a destination where colourful city limits blend into sandy expanses and outer lying lakes come with mountain surrounds.

Its capital Tashkent was partly destroyed by an earthquake in the sixties so today the city is a fusion of Soviet rebuilding work, classical Russian structures, ornate subway stations and huge mausoleums.

Visitors can walk through the country's past at The History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan in the heart of the capital or feast on classic Uzbek food like manty dumplings and vegetable-stuffed hanuns. The Chorsu Bazaar in the Old Town has its roots in the Silk Road glory days and is a fascinating place to trawl for ceramics, needlework, silk work and paintings.