Qanot Sharq, a private airline from Uzbekistan, is to launch flights connecting Tashkent to Madrid. The new flight will be operated from March 2024. This new connection appeared on this weekend’s schedule updates on Cirium’s Diio Mi application.
The rotation between the Uzbek and the Spanish capitals would be made every Saturday from March 9, 2024. Flights would be operated by the airline’s Airbus A321neo, which have a maximum capacity for 240 passengers, albeit Cirium’s schedules register the airline’s A321s as having 202 seats.
| Flight | Route | Departure (LT) | Arrival (LT) | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HH4401 | TAS-MAD | 13h45 | 18h15 | Sat (from Mar 9, 2024) |
| HH4402 | MAD-TAS | 19h35 | 06h55 (+1) | Sat (from Mar 9, 2024) |
Tickets for the new route are already available at Qanot Sharq’s website. Such flights will be a stretch for the airline’s A321s. While the scheduled time of the return leg to Uzbekistan is 70 minutes shorter, the Tashkent-Madrid flight is scheduled at eight hours and 30 minutes.
According to historical data by Cirium, this is to be the first regular, nonstop connection between Spain and Central Asia since State-owned carrier Uzbekistan Airways connected Tashkent to Madrid between 2010 and 2014.
Contacted by Aviacionline via email, Qanot Sharq’s press department has not yet replied to a request for comment regarding the new route.
Qanot Sharq, the country’s first private airline according to state media, incorporated its maiden passenger aircraft in 2021. It was registered in 1998 and it previously operated cargo flights.
Its four narrowbodies — two Airbus A320 of the previous generation and two A321neos — are leased from Air Lease Corporation, as is its maiden widebody, an A330-200, according to data by Planespotters.net.
Route-wise, Qanot Sharq relies on a point-to-point network rather than a hub. It serves generally low-frequency routes from cities in Uzbekistan; Russia is the airline’s mainstay, for millions of Uzbeks — roughly 10 percent of the population — live and work in the country.
Uzbekistan Airways remains by far the largest carrier operating to and from the country, flying about half of all ASKs (4.02 billion) in the last quarter of 2023. The second-largest airline by this measure is Turkish Airlines, with 702 million ASKs, and Qanot Sharq is the fifth, with 271.4 million.
