On Saturday, Uzbekistan Airlines flew his inaugural Pakistani route from Islamabad to Tashkent, marking a key moment in connectivity between the two nations, said a statement from the Airport Authority of Pakistan (PAA).
Uzbekistan announced earlier this year that air routes between Karachi, Samarcanda and Bukhara would be launched, describing it as a significant step to foster the narrowest ties between the two nations.
According to a PAA statement, the flight took off at 1:09 pm with 126 passengers on board, with zone 1 of Islamabad International Airport especially adorned with colorful balloons for the milestone.
“The event was adorned by the estimated ambassadors of Uzbekistan, Tayikistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan,” reads the statement, adding that the director of Operations of the Islamabad airport, the managing director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and the Uzbekist country manager also attended.
“The guests welcomed the passengers in Stand 3 and a formal ceremony of cake cutting in the upper classroom (A5) was held to commemorate the launch,” the statement added. “The whole event was organized without problems with the dedicated support and the coordination of the airport teams under the Airport authority of Pakistan.”
In February of this year, Pakistan and Uzbekistan agreed to expand bilateral trade to $ 2 billion when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Uzbekistan president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent.
Going to a joint press conference with Prime Minister Shehbaz, President Mirziyoyev said: “We arrived at the conclusions about different spheres and mutual commercial turnover had exceeded $ 400 million, and we have plans to increase that to $ 2 billion.”
He described the negotiations between them “very fruitful”, adding that there was a “new direction” for future objectives.
