Following the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara on 30 October, a declaration was adopted. Its transport and travel section provides for studying the question of designated airport lanes for passengers who are citizens of member states. This is a study of a possibility, not an implementation.
The organisation's members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan. If implemented, the initiative could therefore affect passengers from these countries.
Timelines, the list of airports and the conditions for such status have not been defined. At the summit, Uzbekistan separately proposed a multilateral agreement to simplify travel, including border crossings with ID cards.
For airlines and airports, including the Istanbul hub that handles main passenger flows from Central Asia, such a provision would mean extra load on control procedures and terminal layout. For passengers, it could shorten waiting time at the border.
Our assessment: designated lanes remain a declaratory provision for now. A practical step will come only once the list of airports and the rules are agreed between the countries. This is the view of flycentralasia.