Uzbek national airline passenger transport up 11% in 9 months

Interfax November 11 Uzbekistan Khavo Iullari, the national airline, carried 682,200 passengers in the first nine months of the year, up 10.7% from the same period last year, the State Statistics Department said. Passenger turnover was up 19.1% to 3.412 billion passenger- kilometers. Cargo transport shrank 3.5% to 4,500 tonnes and cargo turnover grew 27% to 87.5 million tonne-kilometers. Turnover was up due to increased cargo transport on international flights. The commercial load ratio was down 1.4 percentage points to 4.3%. The airline carried 822,200 passengers in 2003, down 3.7% from 2002. Passenger turnover was up 1.1% last year to 3.956 billion passenger-kilometers. Uzbekistan Khavo Iullari is the airline monopoly in Uzbekistan.