Browse Items (9 total)

During the Soviet era, this huge nation was connected by an extensive flight network. However, for the most part these networks were highly centralized, like much of the infrastructure of the day. The only international flight you could take from…

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.53.01 PM.png
Air routes, by contrast, can be established relatively quickly. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asia, each of the five countries set up a flag carrier with several international destinations. What makes air infrastructure…

Screen Shot 2014-10-16 at 9.08.31 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.43.12 PM.png
Air Kyrgyzstan's slate of destinations appears to be too modest for them to produce a route map. While Air Kyrgyzstan only flies to one Central Asian destination, Tashkent, Bishkek is well-served by the other countries' flag carriers with direct…

flightmap_TOTAL_EM_d3_20141015.png
This is a map consolidating all the above route maps, showing the region-wide priorities. While connections to Moscow were maintained, new destinations like Istanbul and Urumqi acquired new importance. But the network of inter-Central Asia flights…

RR.png
Because railroad infrastructure is expensive and difficult to build, the Soviet-era network is still largely in place today, with new connections (between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, for example) coming online only in the last year. The rail…

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.48.41 PM.png
Further indication of the cultural import of destinations are Tajik Air flights to Kabul and Tehran – the only ones from Central Asia. These flights suggest an interest in maintaining ties with fellow Persian-speaking countries. Labor migrants are…

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.46.27 PM.png
Turkmenistan Airlines only flies to one Central Asian destination, Almaty. And none of the other countries' flag carriers fly to Ashgabat, making it the most isolated capital city in the region. It is also worth noting Turkmenistan Airlines traces…

UZ.jpg
One noticeable trend is that ethnic ties are represented by the many connections between Central Asia and Turkic centers of the former USSR like Ufa, Kazan, Baku, and Simferopol, as well as by external Turkic centers like Urumqi and Istanbul. It is…
Output Formats

atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2