Wizz Air to connect Hungary with another Asian metropolis

We wrote before about the Budapest-Tashkent direct flight connecting the Central Asian capital with Hungary’s astonishing capital. But Hungary’s low-cost airline, Wizz Air, is also planning to open a flight to Uzbekistan. They would like to offer direct travel opportunity between Budapest and Samarkand.

Uzbekistan and Central Asia come closer to Hungary

Samarkand or Samarqand is a city of more than 600,000 people located in Southeast Uzbekistan. Being the second biggest in Uzbekistan, the city of Samarkand was founded in the 8-7th century BC when Rome was founded. It has prospered for long since it was a centre for trade between Europe, the Middle East and China. Being an important stopping point on the Silk Road, it was one of the largest cities of the empires formed and fallen in the region.

The city is noted as a centre of Islamic scholarly study and the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance. Therefore, the old city offers tremendous opportunities to learn about history and culture by visiting monuments, shops, and old private houses. Meanwhile, the new city is the venue of modern business with its educational, industrial and administrative institutions. The international airport is just 6 kilometres away from the old city.

Samarkand is well known for craft production, Silk Way caravans and Islamic architecture with popular tourist attractions including Registon Square, Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Shah-i-Zinda. Famous local dishes include Plov, which is made of rice, meat (beef or lamb), onions, carrots, garlic and dried fruit including sultanas or barberries cooked in giant cauldrons called kazans and Kebab, prepared with thin layers of boiled dough with dried veal meat served with finely chopped onion dried tomatoes and radish, wizzair.com wrote.

Samarkand is the next city to which Hungary’s low-cost airline, Wizz Air, will carry passengers from Budapest. The service will begin this December, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, announced this week following the meeting of the Uzbek-Hungarian inter-governmental economic affairs committee.

Wizz Air to fly to Uzbekistan from Budapest, route is unknown yet

As we wrote earlier, Uzbek Qanot Sharq Airlines will operate flights between Tashkent and Budapest. Qanot Sharq airline will start flights between Tashkent and Budapest Airport on 20 August with its Airbus A320 aircraft. From end-August, one flight will commute between the two capitals per week. That number will increase to two flights per week in the autumn and three flights per week from 1 January 2024, airportal.hu wrote. However, Budfyler noted that flights cannot be booked yet on the company’s website.

Such details were not shared about Wizz Air’s new flight to the Uzbek city of Samarkand. The company recalled that they operated flights between their Middle-Eastern hub, Abu Dhabi, Tashkent and Samarkand. However, they did not explain why they could not operate the new Budapest-Tashkent flight with that experience.

Budflyer wrote that Wizz Air’s flights to Samarkand could be uncertain. That is because the Hungarian carriers cannot use Russian airspace. Therefore, Wizz can only connect the two cities with a significant detour. Maybe that is why they will not operate the flight to Tashkent. And that is why the Astana flight has been paused, while opening a new route to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, progresses slowly.

HERE is an article about a Wizz Air flight to Budapest stranded in Abu Dhabi for more than 30 hours. Furthermore, the UK Civil Aviation Authority brought enforcement action against Wizz Air – details in THIS article.