Flights in and out of the region have surged as airlines that previously flew over Russia are now passing through or flying over central Asia to get to Asia and the Middle East. New airlines, bolstered by government support, have also popped up to capitalize on the new traffic.

"A lot of people have moved from the conflict area into Central Asia [...] they have the linguistic affinity so we're seeing more flights into this area and we're seeing more dynamic economies," said Raphael Haddad, the head of Jetcraft Commercial, a firm that sells aircraft globally and in the region.

Since the early days of the war, Russian airspace has been closed to dozens of Western countries.

As a result, flights between many European countries and Uzbekistan have risen 105.9 percent since 2019 and 36 percent since January of 2022, according to Eurocontrol data.

Kazakhstan's Aviation Administration says passengers are up 16.5 percent year-on-year, while Kazakhstan's Air Astana announced 2022 as its best year ever with after-tax profit of US$78.4 million.

Azerbaijan Airlines said the number of transit flights in the country's airspace rose 134 percent in 2022 compared with 2021.

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