Tashkent airport arrival: taxi, Yandex Go, bus and trains

Taxi, Yandex Go or bus: decide by bags, hour and phone

Three things decide the ride from Terminal 2: how much luggage you carry, the hour you land and whether your phone has data. Amir Temur Square, the centre, is 7.6 km away by road, 11 minutes on empty roads; Tashkent Central station is 4.7 km away and Tashkent South 6.6 km.

The airport taxi desk needs no app and no local SIM, so it is the default for a night landing, a family or 3 bags. Yandex Go costs less than half as much once the app works on your phone. The bus is the cheapest, takes no cash and suits one small bag in daytime.

Where taxis pick you up: lane 1 at the arrivals exit

Since 29 December 2025 the airport lets 5 licensed firms and Yandex Go collect passengers from lane 1, directly outside the arrivals exit. The firms are Taxi Millennium, Let’s Trip, Uzviptransservice, Sixt and Taxi Airport Tashkent, and one shared dispatcher in the arrivals hall takes orders for all of them. Yandex Go cars are ordered in the app. Uzbekistan Airports.

The firms introduced budget fares to compete with the apps, from 50,000 som for a ride within the city, and they sell group and family transfers. A driver with an order enters lane 1 free and waits up to 20 minutes. Every other car, including other apps and friends meeting you, uses lane 2, where Interior Ministry cameras enforce a 10-minute stop. Signs inside the terminal point to the taxi zone.

Yandex Go publishes maximum rates for Tashkent. Its cheapest class, Start, costs 4,600 som for the first kilometre and 3 minutes, then up to 1,050 som per km and 500 som per minute; waiting is free for 2 minutes and 650 som a minute after that. By our arithmetic the 7.6 km to Amir Temur Square with 20 minutes in the car comes to about 20,000 som, before the surge coefficient the app adds at busy hours; the app shows the price before you book. This rate card runs to 29 September 2026. Yandex Go tariff.

Take your car from lane 1 or the desk, never from someone offering a ride in the hall: the FCDO says unlicensed taxis are still common and many taxis have no rear seatbelts. Before the bags go in, match the plate with your order. FCDO; more in taxis and trains.

Buses 40 and 67: 1,700 som, no cash on board

Buses 40 and 67 stop outside Terminal 2 (Yandex Maps, 13 September 2026). Bus 40 runs towards Toshkent vokzali, the Central railway station, where Toshkent metro station on the O‘zbekiston line stands; bus 67 runs towards Beg‘ubor mahallasi. No metro line reaches the airport, so for the metro take bus 40 to the station first. Yandex Maps stop, OpenStreetMap.

Drivers take no cash since 1 January 2025. A ride costs 1,700 som paid electronically, or 3,000 som with a single QR ticket bought at a payment kiosk before you board. An ATTO transport card pays for one passenger, so a group needs one card each. Ministry of Transport, ATTO.

The city council’s draft of 10 September 2026 raises the electronic fare to 2,500 som from 1 October, keeps 3,000 som for QR tickets and sets a 4,000-som fee for carrying luggage. Comments closed on 19 September, and no decision had been published by 27 September. Inspectors wrote up 14,051 passengers for riding without paying between 1 and 22 September 2026. Gazeta.uz, Spot.uz.

From the plane to the kerb: passport, bags, customs

Terminal 2 has its own arrivals building; departures and the check-in hall are in a separate building. This order gets you out with money, data and the right ride.

1. 1

   Passport control

   Queue with your passport ready. Your hotel registers the stay afterwards: visa and registration.

2. 2

   Bags

   Match each bag to its tag before you leave the hall. A missing bag is reported the same day, before you walk out; see the questions below.

3. 3

   Customs

   Declare cash above 100 million som in total, all currencies together; there is no upper limit on what you bring. Declare psychotropic and narcotic medicines (medicine limits). If the phone will take a local SIM, tell the officer it is for personal use: the entry declaration later proves the phone was imported lawfully. Resolution No. 66, Digital Technologies Ministry.

4. 4

   Money and data

   Change a first sum at the National Bank’s 24-hour counter in arrivals and switch data on before you walk out: a driver waits in lane 1 for 20 minutes at most.

5. 5

   Pickup

   Walk to lane 1 for an airport taxi or Yandex Go, or to the meeting point in your transfer confirmation, and check the plate before loading.

Money and a SIM at the airport

The National Bank of Uzbekistan’s exchange counters in the arrivals and departures halls are open 24 hours. Bring clean dollar or euro notes and your passport: booths refuse damaged or marked notes and US dollars issued before 2013, the FCDO says. On 14 September 2026 the Central Bank’s reference rate was 11,765.76 som per US dollar and 13,638.87 per euro; counters buy slightly below it. NBU, Central Bank. Kapitalbank and Hamkorbank ATMs charge 1.5% for a withdrawal with another bank’s Visa or Mastercard, plus your own bank’s fee. Kapitalbank tariff; more in money in Uzbekistan.

The airport lists a SIM-card and insurance sales point, ATMs and exchange counters in the check-in hall on the 2nd floor of the departures building. Operator offices in town sell SIMs on your passport: Ucell’s Bor 70 costs 70,000 som a month for 70 GB. A foreign phone runs on a local SIM for 60 days per calendar year before its IMEI must be registered; roaming on your home SIM needs no registration. Airport FAQ, Ucell, device rules, Mobiuz. Plans and eSIMs: SIM and eSIM.

Install Yandex Go and your bank’s app before the flight, while your home number still receives codes. Mir cards and Visa or Mastercard issued in Russia do not work in Uzbekistan: Russian-issued cards.

Airport to a train: Tashkent Central or Tashkent South

Tashkent has two long-distance stations, 9.6 km apart by road, and your ticket names one. Afrosiyob, Sharq, Nasaf and the Manguberdi to Khiva leave from Tashkent Central (Toshkent Markaziy, also called North); train 054 and most night trains leave from Tashkent South (Janubiy). The booking search lists both as ‘Tashkent’, so read the station on the ticket before you give the driver an address. Station names; every train in Tashkent to Samarkand.

A train on arrival day: which ones fit

No rule sets a minimum time between landing and a train, so the timetable decides. The morning Afrosiyobs to Samarkand leave Tashkent Central between 06:10 and 08:30; in the evening Sharq 712 leaves Central at 20:32, and the night trains leave from 21:12, mostly from South (booking search for 27 September to 25 November 2026). Timetable.

A missed train costs the ticket: returned less than 6 hours before departure, the seat part of the fare is not refunded, and tickets cannot move to another date. After a night landing, sleep in Tashkent and take a morning train the next day; a morning landing leaves the evening Sharq or a night train. Uzbekistan Railways public offer; buying tickets: Afrosiyob and tickets.

Connecting to a domestic flight: Terminal 2 to Terminal 3

Domestic flights use Terminal 3, on the other side of the airfield: 4.8 km by road from the Terminal 2 arrivals exit, about 12,000 som by Yandex Go at the maximum Start rates. On 27 September 2026 the departures board showed 13 domestic destinations at T3, from Andijan and Bukhara to Nukus, Termez and Urgench, while Uzbekistan Airways’ 06:15 HY301 to Samarkand still left from T2, so read the terminal on the board. Departures board.

Arriving from abroad, you collect your bags at Terminal 2, clear customs and check them in again at Terminal 3, even when the domestic ticket is already issued. Uzbekistan Airways closes check-in 30 minutes before domestic departures. A short gap after passport control, bags, customs and the 4.8 km ride calls for a later flight or a night in Tashkent. Baggage transfer, check-in times.

The first night: the hotel is the fixed point

Your hotel registers the stay online within 3 working days of entry; Russian citizens need no registration for their first 15 days. Visa and registration.

Landing in the morning, ask the hotel to keep your bags until check-in; landing late, get the door instructions and a night phone number. With a train the next morning, save the ticket and the station pin offline. For the first walk in the city: one day in Tashkent.

Watch out

• Men offering rides in the arrivals hall are not the licensed desk: take lane 1 or the dispatcher, and match the plate.
• Buses take no cash, and inspectors wrote up 14,051 fare dodgers between 1 and 22 September 2026: buy the QR ticket before boarding.
• Tashkent’s two stations are 9.6 km apart; say Markaziy or Janubiy, not just ‘the station’.
• Terminal 3 is 4.8 km from Terminal 2 by road, not a walk, and bags are checked in again.
• Yandex Go needs data and a working account on landing; without them, the arrivals dispatcher books a licensed taxi.
• Prices move soon: the Yandex Go rate card expires on 29 September 2026, and the 2,500-som bus fare is proposed from 1 October.

Common questions