Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In August 2022, Uzbekistan Airports, in accordance with the law, put up a lot at the E-auksion site - an area for a taxi stand in the arrivals terminal of Tashkent International Airport. This was reported by the press service of the company.

The lot included a number of mandatory documents, including the terms of reference. According to the terms of reference, the taxi service was supposed to have its own fleet of cars running on gasoline or electric vehicles, since gas is strictly prohibited on the territory of the airport. Also, the taxi service was supposed to provide passengers with all forms of payment - cash, as well as local and foreign cards. The requirements for drivers were also mandatory - uniform, neat appearance, basic knowledge of Uzbek, Russian and English.

Uzbekistan Airports reported about the auction on the official website and in social networks, and information was also published in a number of media. As a result, three companies participated in the electronic auction for the right to operate at the airport. The winner was Bobur Diyor. After checking the company for compliance with the terms of reference, an agreement was concluded with it. A unified taxi service under the Airport Tashkent Taxi brand began work at the capital’s airport on September 12, 2022.

On 23 December 2022, the Committee for the Development of Competition and Consumer Protection issued mandatory instructions for Uzbekistan Airports to ensure equal access for cars of all licensed taxi companies that meet other requirements. However, today only in Tashkent there are hundreds of taxi companies, where there are thousands of cars of different brands, years of manufacture, condition, including those running on gas.

It is simply impossible to track compliance with all the requirements of a categorized object upon arrival at the airport. In this regard, in order to resolve the situation with taxis and taking into account numerous complaints from passengers of Uzbekistan Airports, it was decided to choose a single service for the provision of taxi services. Otherwise, it is not possible to restore order at the airport.

With these arguments, Uzbekistan Airports filed an application with the court in order to challenge the Committee’s order. But the court did not take into account these arguments. The Tashkent Interdistrict Administrative Court, by its decision of 28 March, upheld them. The company’s appeal was also dismissed on 12 June.

The court and the Committee did not take into account the decision of Uzbekistan Airports to put up for auction several more taxi service companies. In the coming days, three more lots will be put up on the E-auksion.uz site - at one more point in the common arrival hall of Tashkent International Airport, in the CIP arrival hall, and also in the arrival hall of the domestic airlines terminal. This will also be additionally reported on the official website of Uzbekistan Airports and in social networks.

It should be noted that during the year of operation of the unified taxi service, not a single complaint was received by the airport and the company carrying out this activity, on the contrary, passengers leave only positive feedback. Returning to the situation a year ago: constant complaints on social networks and to various authorities, up to the Virtual Reception of the President, with a request to clean up the airport. Old cars, untidy and impudently behaving drivers, sky-high prices, as well as several cases of robbery and beating of passengers - today Uzbekistan Airports managed to push all this out of its territory at least. Now the passenger can use the services of an official taxi, or call a taxi aggregators Yandex, MyTaxi, etc. to the nearest parking lot (50-100 meters from the terminal), where there is a free time of 10 minutes.

In addition, Uzbekistan Airports intends to file a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court and seek the abolition of the Committee’s order, including by choosing new companies providing taxi services.