TASHKENT AIRPORT  Passenger Reviews and Traveller Reports

TASHKENT AIRPORT review :  23 February 2010 by Jorgen Caceres   (Sweden)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Transit "lounge". I never understand, why one has to take the stairs up one floor, only to take them right back down again - this is the case in Tashkent transit lounge. You get bussed there when your plane lands - one bus to arrivals and one bus to transit. First of all, there are no signs when you get upstairs. People do not understand where they should go, so they typically just stop there. To be let into the actual lounge, the passport gets examined (in my case - Swedish passport - very thoroughly) and boarding card stamped twice (another stamp is added on the way out later on). There are no seats to talk about. They cram about 600 people in the lounge and there are about 50 seats somewhere. Very uncomfortable at that. Loudspeaker calls are unintelligible. The airport staff runs around shouting the next departure. Do not fall asleep, you will not be awakened to catch your flight. That said, if you're late, you will still be hauled away to the plane, just as long as it's still on the ground. The lounge is supposedly non-smoking, however not all are able to read English, and obviously ignore or do not understand the non-smoking sign, and chug happily away like steam engines. Staff is not unfriendly - but not very friendly either. Maybe one shouldn't expect smiles in the middle of the night / early morning.

TASHKENT AIRPORT review :  5 November 2009 : by K Fridlington   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

It does take time to get into the country especially if a large tour group gets to the immigration check first. Local people get a kind of priority however the officials seem to be looking at reasons to stop as many as they can. Anyway remember to complete your arrival card fully and complete every section. The first control point examines your passport and visa, you collect luggage and then go through a second check where they examine and stamp your arrival card. Leaving the country is similar again you need to complete another card to present to the security at passport control who ask about money. Again I was expecting the worse however we had no issues or problems, it helps to smile and be polite. After the passport check there are very limited facilities, the duty free shops only take euros, dollars or UK pounds, the prices are very expensive and the choices are limited. You cannot spend any local currency after the pass port check so change everything in the airport banks.

TASHKENT AIRPORT review : 8 June 2009 : by Sergey Galich

Customer Rating : 1/5

Probably it is the worst airport in the world. It takes at least 2 hours to leave the airport, after you pass all those passport controls and customs. Departure is also very bad. Business class lounge is just shocking! Avoid taxi drivers on arrival.

TASHKENT AIRPORT review : 15 April 2009 : by Gerry Engwerda

Customer Rating : 1/5

Beware of airport scams everyone! We were booked economy class as part of a group. However we were told by airport staff that for $US60 we could upgrade to Business for the flight to KL as business was empty according to them. Which we did. We got the extra baggage allowance and we even had use of the Business class lounge. When we got on board the boarding passs had us all in economy. We stuck to our guns for as long as we could but had to accept Economy class with Uzbekistan Airways after the police became involved. Possibly one of the most corrupt places we have been to. Pity as the country is well worth a visit.

TASHKENT AIRPORT review : 16 September 2008 : by D Fuchs

Customer Rating : 1/5

We had to use this Airport twice in Sept 2008. A new experience indeed. Best show was on departure. You have to pass the customs - after you have filled in several forms. There is no queue or line - no - just a small gate and several hundreds of people - pushing and kicking. The staff is rather arrogant, incompetent and type of dull uniform-carriers. It was the most terrible airport we ever used.

TASHKENT AIRPORT review : 28 August 2008 : by R Thomas

Customer Rating : 1/5

I have visited Uzbekistan 4 times and I have dread passing through this relic of the USSR. Prepare yourself for a minimum of a 1 hour wait at passport control. You'll likely wait for another 30-60 minutes for your luggage to finally arrive. After finally retrieving your luggage you might think your suffering is over but then you'll spend another hour or so in the customs inspection line.

Tashkent Airport review by Dave Stanley

23 August 2007   Customer Rating :

A year on and no improvement! The customs delays are worse than ever. The officials seem determined to work as slowly as they can. Then there are long queues at immigration and finally another security check with a long queue. Once you are through all this you will not have time for a drink at the bar, which is no loss as it is terrible anyway.

Tashkent Airport review by Dave Stanley

24 September 2006   Customer Rating : n/a

I use Tashkent airport frequently. It is such a shame that the airport infrastructure is very good, it is just the awful way that it is operated that lets it down. Whether it is the inexplicable wait for luggage when you are on the only flight arriving or the crazy check- in/customs bureaucracy or the only bar in the departure area that does not accept local currency, there is always something to cause problems. jumping queues seems to be a birth right for some of the locals. If an Uzbek lady runs past you in the queue for customs clearance shouting 'Istanbul, Istanbul', don't be fooled. She wants you to think she is late for a flight. Like many others she is just trying to jump the queue! Tashkent is a wonderful place, it just needs a change in attitude in places like the airport to make people feel welcome.

Tashkent Airport review by Mark Bickerton

11 February 2006

Tashkent airport is quite modern in design, but tries hard to retain a flavour of Soviet bureaucracy in its overall service. I have been asked for bribes by check-in staff at least three times, and one time had to spend 10 mins trying to find a member of staff so I could check in (the desk said 'Check in Open'). When I located someone, I was eventually told there was no seat for me (which means 'give me money and there will be') so I had to argue with him to get my confirmed seat. There is not much to do at this airport; the gate cafe is rubbish and only accepts US Dollars. If you are stuck there because of a delay, try to get out of the airport and go to a nearby choykhana or shashlik place. I spent a very nice few hours just sitting in the sun outside the domestic terminal once, which was much better than being stuck inside the terminal. The cafe (upstairs) at the domestic terminal is quite nice.

Tashkent Airport review by Dave Stanley

29 January 2006

I passed through three times in December/January. My fist was arriving from Sharjah. It took two hours for our luggage to be returned and to get through customs. There were also delays on the other visits. If you can manage with cabin baggage, it could save a lot of problems. One of our flights leaving was delayed (BA). We were left to freeze in an unheated corridor. Business class check in can be very slow because the customs officials when they eventually turn up are very slow. Customs procedures are pretty painful, with forms to fill out arriving and departing.

Tashkent Airport review by Manoj Kalair

21 November 2005

On route to India from Heathrow, we had a 5 hour stop over at Tashkent airport. The staff are fine and the building was fairly modern. There is a bar but no restaurant or cafe. The big disappointment are the wash/WC facilities. The toilets were hole in the floor type and there were only 2 sinks with no hand wash or hand towels of dryers. They were unclean, unhygienic as well as the foul smell to put up with. This is well below international standards and the women;ps wash/WC facilities were the same. Not acceptable when hundreds of people are waiting there for connecting flights.

Tashkent Airport review by Dave Stanley

25 October 2005

The airport is fairly small but is modern. I had no problems with the staff. There is a design fault with the luggage carousels which causes them to jam and many of the bags to fall off - a minor irritation. Departing, the only problem is the lack of a cafe/restaurant. If there is one, I did not find it.

Tashkent Airport review by Keith Partington

30 November 2004

Following a diversion on my British Mediterranean Airways flight from LHR to nearby Bishkek, I finally arrived 18 hours late. I reckon we sped through the anticipated hell that was immigration, customs and baggage because it was late at night. With a sigh of relief (after less than an hour following touch down) I emerged into the tiniest arrivals hall you could imagine. No proper cafe facilities, just a counter selling unfamiliar snack bars and cheap gifts and several eager taxi drivers wanting my custom. Departures was no better for facilities (one small impersonal circular bar at the gate area) but the check in area was bright with liberal use of marble.