Central Asia positions itself as the corridor Russia used to be

Europe–Asia routings that once crossed Russian airspace now track further south, and the airports beneath those tracks have noticed. Almaty, Tashkent and Baku are all expanding, and all three are pitching themselves as technical-stop and cargo transit points rather than merely national gateways.

Cargo is the faster win. Silk Way West has built a freighter network on precisely this geography, and Baku now handles volumes disproportionate to Azerbaijan’s own trade.

The constraint is ground infrastructure and slot handling rather than runways. Several of these airports have the pavement but not the warehousing, and perishables in particular need cold-chain capacity that does not yet exist at scale.

Our read: watch warehouse and cold-store capex rather than terminal announcements. Freight transit is won on the ground, not in the air.