Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) in Baku is Azerbaijan’s main airport. In 2025 it served 7.640 million passengers, up 1.3% after 31% growth in 2024, while transit passengers rose 30% to 974,000. In January 2026 President Ilham Aliyev said capacity should rise to 15–20 million passengers and that a concept for a new terminal is being developed.
New services in 2026 include Air Serbia from Belgrade, launched on 3 May, Airblue from Lahore and Wizz Air from Bratislava, scheduled from 29 September. As of September 2026, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) links Baku with 10 Central Asian cities in four countries with 48 weekly flights.
Key facts
- 25 September 2026 — AZAL’s Central Asian routes carried about 400,000 passengers since the start of 2026, up 35%, and 58,700 of them connected in Baku. Central Asia traffic up 35%
- 3 July 2026 — Wizz Air scheduled twice-weekly Bratislava–Baku flights with 239-seat Airbus A321neo from 29 September, its third European route to Baku after Budapest and Rome. Wizz Air from Bratislava
- 3 July 2026 — AZAL announced flights to Atyrau from 16 August and Aktobe from 16 September; according to Kazakhstan’s transport ministry, this will bring Kazakhstan–Azerbaijan frequencies to 40 a week. Flights to western Kazakhstan
- 28 May 2026 — Air Serbia was considering more Belgrade–Baku flights in September because of the Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Grand Prix demand
- 12 May 2026 — Airblue launched twice-weekly Lahore–Baku flights, becoming the third carrier on the route after AZAL and PIA. Airblue enters Baku
- 4 May 2026 — Air Serbia operated its first Belgrade–Baku flight on 3 May, with twice-weekly Airbus A319 service. Air Serbia launch
- 1 April 2026 — Sergey Agibalov of Argus said transit traffic through Baku was increasing as the Middle East conflict cut traffic at Dubai and other Middle Eastern hubs. Transit shift from the Middle East
- 17 January 2026 — Destinations served from Baku fell from 80 to 75 in 2025; the busiest were Istanbul, Tbilisi, Dubai, Ankara and Moscow. 2025 traffic results
AZAL flights to Central Asia
As of September 2026, AZAL’s Central Asian network includes 31 weekly flights to six cities in Kazakhstan: Almaty, Astana and Aktau daily, Atyrau four times a week, Shymkent and Aktobe three times. The airline flies daily to Tashkent, twice weekly to Samarkand, and four times weekly each to Bishkek and Dushanbe. It plans to grow its fleet to 50 aircraft by 2032.
