Kyrgyzstan becomes air transit hub between East, West
By Vusala Abbasova
Kyrgyzstan has become a transit hub connecting flights between East and West, said Erkin Isakov, Director of the Civil Aviation Agency, in an interview with KirTAG.
"The Manas airport as a transit hub carries out the refueling of such giant as Lufthansa," Isakov said.
Moreover, the airport services the Istanbul -- Bishkek -- Ulan-Bator transit passenger flight.
The Manas International Airport, mostly used for commercial flights, provides flights to Shanghai from Europe and vice versa.
Manas is one of the largest and the most modern aviation centers in Central Asia. Moreover, the lower cost of services is one of Kyrgyzstan’s advantages.
The airport for its favorable geographical location, crossing the trade routes between Europe and Asia, has great potential to become a major logistics hub in the region.
Manas was the site of a former American military base before it was withdrawn by the president’s order in 2014 in order to create a multimodal transport and logistics center.
Earlier, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev announced that the airport had plans to develop into a civic hub.
The establishment of an aviation hub is a strategic transport infrastructure project and corresponds to Kyrgyzstan’s national strategy for sustainable development for the period of 2013-2017.
Central Asia is becoming an increasingly important region for international civil aviation in both passenger and cargo traffic. Airfreight carried between Western Europe and Southeast Asia makes up more than 30 million tons per year, and grows at a rate of 7 percent per year.
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