Centrum Air

Is Centrum Air safe?

Mostly, as far as a short record shows. Uzbekistan's biggest private airline has flown passengers since January 2023 without an accident, its passenger fleet is all Airbus, and its home country holds the FAA's Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary rating. We score it 74, level with the national airline, Uzbekistan Airways. The catches: less than four years of flying, no confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, a fleet that is still mostly older A320s and A330s, and a network built around Russia. Our confidence is low because Uzbekistan publishes so little about incidents.

Who actually flies the plane?

Not a company called Centrum Air. The footer of the airline's website names the legal owner as LLC "My Freighter", and Centrum Air is its trademark. My Freighter is the group's cargo airline, and passenger flights run on its certificate: the IATA code C6, the ICAO code MFX and the radio call sign WHITEBIRD all belong to My Freighter in the FAA's list of designators.

That matters for how we score it. The same crews' employer, maintenance system and safety management cover 11 Boeing freighters (10 converted 767-300s, the tenth delivered in October 2026, and a 757) as well as the 16 passenger Airbuses. So My Freighter's cargo flights count on this page too. In June 2025, for example, an A320 flying freight as C6-222 returned to Tbilisi after a left engine malfunction; Uzbekistan's investigators classed it as an incident and opened an investigation.

Why is the score not higher?

A short record. Centrum Air started on 18 January 2023. It carried 2 million passengers in the first ten months of 2026, so it is no longer small, but under four years without an accident says less than two decades would. The accident record scores 86, similar to other young airlines we cover.

No outside audit we can confirm. Centrum Air is not an IATA member, and we found no IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. Uzbekistan is in FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary and no Uzbek airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary, but the country's investigators publish very few reports. Oversight scores 75, about five points below Uzbekistan Airways, which has IOSA.

An older mixed fleet. The website lists 6 A320ceos, 2 A320neos, 4 A321neos and 4 A330-300s. Only six are current-generation types, and no average age is published. The freighters on the same certificate are conversions of older 767 airframes. Fleet scores 60.

Training is one area where the airline has spent money on outside help. In 2025 it signed a contract, running to May 2027, for its pilots to train in Acron Aviation's full-flight simulators in Bangkok.

What has gone wrong so far?

Nothing that hurt anyone, as far as we found. The events on record:

• February 2025: an A321neo flying C6-3336 from Medina to Fergana diverted to Mary in Turkmenistan after the crew found an engine oil leak. A replacement A321neo flew the passengers on.
• June 2025: the My Freighter A320 engine malfunction at Tbilisi described above.
• December 2025: a Kazan–Tashkent flight left 27 hours late because a faulty landing gear part had to be replaced, which the airline said took longer because of sanctions on Russia.
• May 2026: lightning hit an A330 on a Tashkent–Urgench flight, and it was taken out of service for checks. A smaller A320 replaced it, and 42 passengers could not board. That led to a consumer-rights inquiry into ticket sales at Centrum Air and Qanot Sharq, not a safety finding.

A quiet list from a thinly reported country is not proof of a clean record, so serious incidents score 70.

Where Centrum Air flies

Most international flights go to Russia. The airline's fare map lists Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Ufa, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Sochi, Krasnodar and Grozny, among others. EASA's conflict-zone bulletin for Russian airspace, valid until January 2027, warns that drone attacks can shut airports at short notice and that GNSS jamming and spoofing are common. The airline also flies to Jeddah, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Lahore and Karachi, and to Kazakhstan, China and the Maldives. Saudi Arabian airspace and the Gulf have their own EASA bulletins in 2026. Domestic flights use smaller regional airports such as Urgench, Nukus and Fergana. The environment scores 55.

Practical advice

• On Russian routes, allow a day of slack. Short-notice airport closures, and spare parts that take longer to reach Russia, can turn a delay into an overnight stop.
• If you can choose, take an A321neo or A320neo. They are the newest jets in the fleet; check the aircraft type in the booking before you pay.
• Compare with Uzbekistan Airways on long routes. It has passed the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit and flies 787s on long-haul routes.

How we scored it

The accident record (86) carries the score: no accident since January 2023, but a short record. Oversight (75) reflects FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary without a confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit. Incidents (70) are scored as a thin record, not a proven clean one. The fleet (60) and the Russia-heavy network (55) are the weakest factors. Overall 74.