IATA: Azerbaijan's aviation market more mature than Central Asia's

Azerbaijan's aviation market is more mature compared to Central Asian countries.

Rafael Schvartzman, Regional Vice President for Europe at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said this while answering a question from Report's correspondent dispatched to Rio de Janeiro at a press conference held as part of IATA's 82nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit (WATS).

According to him, Central Asian countries are currently demonstrating rapid growth in the aviation sector.

"The region is quite an interesting case. Azerbaijan has been developing for a long time and is a more mature market compared to Central Asian states, as it started this path earlier. If we talk about Central Asia, Kazakhstan has long been the region's leader, developing faster than other countries and doing a great deal of work. One of its main challenges was flight safety, but over time the country managed to get out of the so-called 'blacklists.' This played an important role in the development of the aviation sector and gave impetus to the growth of local airlines," Schvartzman said.

He also recalled that Uzbekistan's aviation market began to open up actively about a decade ago.

"If we look at Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, they are united by an interesting factor: the geopolitical crisis has to some extent contributed to an increase in air traffic and helped reveal the region's potential. Azerbaijan was actively involved in international logistics and humanitarian operations at the early stages, which enabled the development of large cargo terminals and cargo aviation.

Today, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are in a somewhat different, but in many ways similar, situation. Restrictions on the use of certain airspaces are creating new opportunities for the development of both cargo and passenger transportation. Now is the right time for these countries to find and realize such opportunities," the IATA vice president emphasized.