Key Takeaways
- Baku is Azerbaijan's dominant airport. Heydar Aliyev International (GYD) in Baku serves around 77 regularly-served nonstop destinations, the hub of flag carrier Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL). Every other airport in the country is a fraction of its size.
- The network is small beyond the capital. Ganja (GNJ) and Nakhchivan (NAJ) run only a handful of routes each, mostly to Moscow, Istanbul and within Azerbaijan. Gabala (GBB) has virtually no scheduled service today.
- No direct flights to the United States. There are no nonstop flights between Azerbaijan and the US. Travelers connect through hubs such as Istanbul, Dubai or Doha.
- Nakhchivan is reached mainly by air. Nakhchivan is an Azerbaijani exclave cut off from the rest of the country by Armenia, so the Baku to Nakhchivan flight is a vital domestic lifeline rather than a convenience route.
- New airports have opened in Karabakh. Azerbaijan has built three airports in the Karabakh region since 2021, at Fuzuli, Zangilan and Lachin. Scheduled service is still very limited, so they do not yet appear in the route data.
Azerbaijan sits where the eastern Caucasus meets the Caspian Sea, and almost all of its air traffic flows through a single gateway: Heydar Aliyev International Airport in the capital, Baku. It is the hub of the national flag carrier, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), and dwarfs the rest of the country’s airports. Beyond Baku, only a few regional fields see scheduled flights, mostly to Moscow, Istanbul and other points across Azerbaijan.
Below we map and rank Azerbaijan’s airports by the number of nonstop destinations each one serves, drawn from live route data on AirportRoutes. Because the figures come from observed flight data, a large sample rather than a complete published timetable, we treat them as a guide to relative connectivity rather than exact official totals.
Does Azerbaijan have direct flights to the US?
No. There are currently no nonstop flights between Azerbaijan and the United States. Azerbaijan Airlines does not serve any North American city, so travelers heading to or from the US connect through a third country.
The most common routings are through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines, through Dubai on Emirates and flydubai, or through Doha on Qatar Airways, each of which links Baku to several US gateways with a single stop. From Baku you can also pick up one-stop options via European hubs such as Frankfurt, London or Paris.
Ranked
Major Airports in Azerbaijan by Nonstop Destinations
Ranked by regularly-served nonstop destinations, busiest first.
| Airport | IATA | Nonstop | City / Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Baku (Heydar Aliyev) | GYD | 77 | Baku |
| 2. Ganja | GNJ | 5 | Ganja |
| 3. Nakhchivan | NAJ | 3 | Nakhchivan |
| 4. Gabala | GBB | 0 | Gabala |
A closer look at Azerbaijan’s main airports
✈️ Baku (GYD)
Heydar Aliyev International Airport lies about 20 km northeast of central Baku and is named after Azerbaijan’s former president. Its striking, award-winning Terminal 1 opened in 2014 and made it one of the most modern airports in the Caucasus. It is the home base of Azerbaijan Airlines and its low-cost operations, and the country’s only true international hub.
Serving Baku, GYD reaches around 77 regularly-served nonstop destinations, spanning Europe, Russia, the Gulf, Turkey and Central and East Asia. Top destinations include Istanbul, Moscow, Tbilisi, Dubai and Minsk.
Main airlines: Azerbaijan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, flynas, plus Russian carriers such as IrAero and UTair. See the full route map for GYD on AirportRoutes →
🛬 Ganja (GNJ)
Ganja International Airport serves Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, in the west of the country. It is a modest regional gateway with a compact network rather than a hub.
GNJ runs roughly 5 regularly-served nonstop routes, concentrated on Moscow (served via several of the city’s airports) and Istanbul, plus a domestic hop to Nakhchivan. The mix reflects strong labour and family ties between western Azerbaijan and Russia.
Main airlines: AJet, Pegasus Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Russian carriers including Aeroflot, Ural Airlines and UTair. See the full route map for GNJ on AirportRoutes →
🗺️ Nakhchivan (NAJ)
Nakhchivan Airport serves the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an Azerbaijani exclave separated from the rest of the country by Armenia. Because there is no overland route through Armenia, the airport is far more than a convenience: the Baku to Nakhchivan service is a vital lifeline that keeps the region connected to the mainland.
NAJ runs about 3 regularly-served nonstop routes: domestic links to Baku and Ganja, both flown by Azerbaijan Airlines, and an international connection to Istanbul.
Main airlines: Azerbaijan Airlines, AJet, Turkish Airlines. See the full route map for NAJ on AirportRoutes →
Gabala and Azerbaijan’s newer airports
🏔️ Gabala (GBB)
Gabala International Airport opened in 2011 to serve the resort town of Gabala (Qabala) in the wooded northern foothills, a popular domestic tourism destination. Despite its modern terminal, it has never built a steady scheduled network and today sees little to no regular passenger service, appearing in the route data with no regularly-served routes.
Azerbaijan has also been building airports in the Karabakh region. Fuzuli International Airport opened in 2021 and has an intermittent Azerbaijan Airlines link to Baku, while Zangilan (2022) and Lachin (2024) have followed. Scheduled passenger service at all three remains very limited, so they do not yet appear with regular routes in the AirportRoutes data and are not ranked above.
Airport rankings, nonstop-destination counts, served cities, airline lists and connection details are drawn from live AirportRoutes route data (observed AeroAPI flight data, a sample rather than a complete published schedule; we use the regularly-served figure, which filters one-off observations). Airport history and notable facts are cross-checked against the cited references. The country map is a Mappr original.
Primary Data Source:
- AirportRoutes: major airports and routes, Azerbaijan – Live route data: per-airport nonstop destinations, served cities, airlines and international connections.
Reference:
- Wikipedia: Heydar Aliyev, Ganja, Nakhchivan and Gabala airports – Airport history, location and notable facts referenced in the per-airport sections.
- Fuzuli, Zangilan and Lachin international airports – Background on the newer airports built in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region since 2021.
- Locator maps: Google Maps / Google Static Maps – Per-airport location maps with airplane markers, generated via Google Static Maps.
Image Sources:
- Map by Mappr – Map of major airports in Azerbaijan, a Mappr original built from AirportRoutes data and Natural Earth boundaries.
🌍 More maps & data for Azerbaijan
Browse more: All airports by country
