23 June 2026
APRAM Aerospace is expanding its activities into Central Asia. Following a series of meetings that culminated in its participation at the MRO Central Asia 2026 conference in Tashkent, the company has established further concrete business cooperation in the region, covering spare parts supplies including Exchange and Repair arrangements. For a Czech distributor specialising in narrow-bodied fleets, this is a logical step: Central Asian airlines operate predominantly Airbus A320 Family and Boeing 737 aircraft, precisely the types for which APRAM Aerospace holds stock and has many years of experience.
“This success is no coincidence. It is the result of changes in a market that has been reshaped over the past two decades and today ranks among the most dynamic in the world,” says Alena Šimečková, CEO of the company.
The following analysis summarises why Central Asia represents a structural opportunity for the aviation aftermarket – and what lies behind the demand for parts, exchanges and repairs that is driving the region forward.
The world’s fastest-growing aviation region
According to the analytics firm OAG, air transport capacity in Central Asia has grown by almost five hundred percent over the past twenty years, equivalent to average annual growth of around 7.7 percent – a pace that places the region among the fastest growing in the world. In 2025 Central Asia handled approximately sixty million passengers, and the number of people carried is growing roughly two and a half times faster than the local economy.
This growth is driven by a combination of several factors: a growing population, rapid development of tourism, market liberalisation and the arrival of the low-cost segment. The share of low-cost carriers in regional capacity jumped from just 4.6 percent in 2015 – then the lowest figure in the world – to twenty-one percent in 2025. Opening up the market through open-skies policies at secondary airports is attracting new operators and foreign airlines and creating a denser network of connections.
Uzbekistan is a clear illustration. The number of airlines serving the country has risen from fifteen to forty-four in eight years, with foreign carriers increasing from fourteen to thirty-six. In 2024 the country’s airports handled a record 13.5 million passengers, thirty percent more year on year. Neighbouring Kazakhstan carried almost fifteen million passengers in 2024, and its airports handled close to thirty million people.
A wave of orders: a fleet set to double
Rising demand is feeding through into order books. Kazakhstan plans to expand its national fleet from approximately 104 aircraft to 221 by 2030 – more than double. The region is betting above all on narrow-bodied single-aisle aircraft. The leading Kazakh group operates a fleet with an average age of around six years, made up almost entirely of A320 family aircraft, and in early 2026 finalised its largest direct order to date for twenty-five A320NEO Family aircraft, with options that could take it to as many as fifty.
Uzbekistan’s national carrier operates twenty-four narrow-bodied aircraft – a mix of A320, A320neo and long-range A321LR – and has firm orders for further A321NEO aircraft with deliveries in 2027 and 2028. The Tajik carrier has announced its first ever Boeing order, covering 737-8 MAX aircraft. Taken together, these are investments worth billions that will bring dozens of new narrow-bodied aircraft into the region over the coming years.
What matters for the aftermarket is that the new aircraft are not replacing the older ones but joining them. Because of delayed deliveries at both major manufacturers, the first generation of narrow-bodied aircraft – the A320NEO and Boeing 737NG – are staying in active service longer than originally expected. The overlap of an ageing fleet and a new one means an expanding base of aircraft that need parts, components, exchanges and repairs.
Maintenance capacity is catching up with the market – so far at a distance
This is where the core of the opportunity opens up. In maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), Central Asia remains heavily dependent on foreign partners. Heavy and base, line and periodic maintenance has historically been contracted out to Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the region still lags behind international standards in base maintenance capacity.
Domestic players are certainly investing – the leading Uzbek MRO centre is building new hangars for wide-bodied aircraft in Tashkent, has introduced predictive maintenance software and is seeking US FAA certification on top of its existing European EASA Part-145 approval, while the leading Kazakh technical centre plans two new hangars by 2027. Even so, the region will remain a net importer of components, exchange units and used serviceable material (USM) for years to come. And that is precisely the narrow-bodied aircraft segment that APRAM Aerospace serves.
The global context underlines this demand. Oliver Wyman forecasts that worldwide MRO spending will reach 119 billion dollars in 2025, twelve percent above the previous peak in 2019, and will keep growing towards 156 billion by 2035. The share of narrow-bodied aircraft in the global fleet is set to rise from sixty-two percent today to sixty-eight percent. Pressure on manufacturers’ delivery times, supply chain constraints and the ageing of the in-service fleet are the structural reasons why operators are turning more and more to exchanges, repairs and used serviceable material.
Two markets instead of one
Commercially, it is important that Central Asia is developing around two separate poles. Kazakhstan, with its airports in Astana and Almaty, and Uzbekistan, with Tashkent, compete with each other as regional hubs, and each is investing in its own aviation and maintenance infrastructure. Demand is therefore not concentrated in one place but geographically divided.
Tashkent has a head start in MRO thanks to a long-standing partnership with a renowned European maintenance provider, its new hangars and the breadth of its EASA Part-145 approvals. Kazakhstan, in turn, leads on regulatory maturity – its compliance with ICAO safety standards stands at roughly eighty-two percent, well above the global average, and the European Union has lifted all flight restrictions on its carriers. Oversight is being modernised in cooperation with European and British authorities and is moving towards alignment with Western certification standards.
Infrastructure investment is giving this growth a physical foundation. Construction of an entirely new international airport with capacity for twenty million passengers a year has begun in Tashkent. In Almaty the operator has opened a new international terminal costing two hundred million dollars and launched a long-term modernisation programme that also includes a new maintenance hangar. In Astana an investment agreement worth 1.1 billion dollars has been signed for a second runway and further terminals.
What sets the region apart: long-range narrow-bodied aircraft and a shortage of technicians
Central Asia has several features that set it apart from other emerging markets. One of them is its bet on long-range narrow-bodied aircraft. The leading regional carrier deploys A321LR aircraft in a premium configuration on thin long-haul routes that would otherwise require a narrow-bodied aircraft. This model of narrow-bodied aircraft on long routes has direct implications for the planning of spare parts, rotable components and technical support.
The second, and perhaps the most serious, feature is the shortage of qualified personnel. Forecasts from manufacturers and specialist institutions indicate that over the next decade the aviation industry will need hundreds of thousands of new maintenance technicians worldwide. The acute shortage of certified technicians and engineers is the main brake on building domestic heavy periodic maintenance capacity in Central Asia – and paradoxically prolongs dependence on imported parts and services. For distributors and providers of exchanges and repairs, this means the window of opportunity will stay open longer than fleet growth alone would suggest.
The region also lies at the east–west crossroads and is positioning itself as a hub for freight traffic. The growth of e-commerce is driving demand for cargo capacity and for conversions of aircraft into freighter versions, adding a further dimension to the aftermarket.
The investment case in Central Asia for a spare parts distributor specialising in narrow-bodied aircraft is strong and structurally resilient. The region is placing a large, young and almost exclusively A320 and 737 fleet on a maintenance base that is only now building capacity for periodic heavy checks and component repairs. Four forces are adding up: rapid fleet growth, the ageing of the first generation of narrow-bodied aircraft, global supply chain constraints pushing operators towards exchanges and repairs, and immature local supply chains.
It is precisely in this environment that a distributor with ASA-100 and ISO 9001 certification and a specialisation in narrow-bodied parts comes into its own. The expansion of APRAM Aerospace’s activities into Central Asia – including supplies under Exchange and Repair arrangements – is not a response to one-off demand, but entry into a market whose growth dynamic still has many years ahead of it.
“Central Asia reminds us of the Middle East ten years ago: enormous potential, rapidly growing demand and, so far, relatively few qualified partners on the supply side. The difference is that today we are ready and we have been present there from the outset,” says Alena Šimečková, Director of APRAM Aerospace.