It was definitely a reason for celebration: Low-cost startup Bees Airline is launching weekly flights on Mondays, starting Aug. 30, from Kyiv to Samarkand, the first Ukrainian airline to serve the ancient Uzbekistan city that is home to a half-million people. Sky Up Airlines and Ukraine International Airlines have flights to Uzbekistan, but only from Kyiv to the capital Tashkent.
The Bees Airline website shows one-way tickets selling for $159 and departing from Kyiv Sikorsky Airport.
The development is part of a renewed drive to restore closer ties between the two former Soviet republics with similar populations — Uzbekistan with 34 million people and Ukraine with 40 million.
Uzbekistan Ambassador to Ukraine Alisher Kurmanov celebrated the occasion with traditional Uzbek cuisine, dancing, and a lottery for two free round-trip tickets on the new route. The event with about 70 guests took place in the courtyard of Uzbekistan’s Embassy in Kyiv.
At the event, Bees Airline general director Yevhen Khainatsky told reporters that tickets will be sold until November. Afterwards, “whether the number of frequencies will increase will depend on the dynamics of sales, the desire of our citizens to fly in that direction and the Uzbeks to fly to Ukraine,” Khainatsky told Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Samarkand is nearly 4,000 kilometers southeast of Kyiv and has a warmer climate — with average highs of 33 degrees Celcius in July, the warmest month, and 6 degrees Celcius in January, the coldest month.
The State Aviation Service of Ukraine issued an operator certificate to Bees Airline on March 12, 2021.
More information on travel to Uzbekistan is available on the country’s official tourism site.
