Turkmenistan Airlines

Is Turkmenistan Airlines safe?

On its accident record, yes: Turkmenistan's state airline has had no fatal accident since it was founded in 1992, and it has flown only Western jets on passenger routes for two decades. The catch is that almost everything else is hard to check. Europe's safety agency grounded its EU flights for eight months in 2019, the airline is not on IATA's 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 registry, and Turkmenistan publishes next to nothing about incidents or investigations. We score it 72, close to Somon Air (73) and Uzbekistan Airways (74), with low confidence.

The 2019 EU ban, and how it ended

On 4 February 2019 the European Union Aviation Safety Agency suspended Turkmenistan Airlines' third-country operator permit, the authorisation every non-EU airline needs to fly into Europe. The UK Civil Aviation Authority followed the same day, stranding passengers on the airline's Birmingham and London routes to Amritsar and Delhi via Ashgabat. The UK Foreign Office said the suspension would stay "pending confirmation that it meets international air safety standards". EASA did not publish its detailed findings.

The airline brought in Lufthansa Consulting. According to the consultancy, teams worked on the airline's quality, safety, flight operations and maintenance systems from February onwards and sent progress reports to EASA. After an on-site audit in Ashgabat at the end of September, EASA restored the permit on 11 October 2019, and flights to Europe resumed that winter.

We count the suspension in the serious-incidents factor, because it is a documented safety action against this airline within the last ten years. It also tells you something positive: EASA has since audited the airline on site and lets it fly into the EU. In 2026 it flies to Milan Malpensa.

What we can and cannot see

The accident record is genuinely clean. The Aviation Safety Network lists no accident for Turkmenistan Airlines since a small Antonov An-2 was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary at Bekdash in November 1993, with no deaths. Over the same period the airline carried a steady stream of passengers; Lufthansa Consulting put the figure at nearly three million a year in 2019. A fatal crash or a destroyed jet would be hard to hide, so we give the accident factor 90.

Smaller events are another matter. The last incident we found is a 777-200LR that diverted to Keflavik on 31 October 2016 when one engine showed low oil, a routine precautionary landing that does not count in our score. For an airline of this size, ten years without a single logged event is too quiet to be the whole picture. Turkmenistan has no published accident-investigation reports that we could find, and the national aviation authority, the Türkmenhowaýollary Agency, carries the same name the airline is known by at home, which says little for the distance between them. There is no FAA rating either: Turkmenistan is not on the FAA's IASAFAA 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 list, because no Turkmen airline flies to the US.

The airline is not an IATA member, and when we searched IATA's 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 registry on 28 October 2026, under Turkmenistan, Turkmen and TUA, it was not listed. With no outside audit, oversight stays at 60, below the Kazakh and Tajik airlines, which have IOSA.

What does it fly?

Only Boeings on passenger routes. The 2026–27 winter schedules use 737-700s to Istanbul, Kazan and Delhi, 737-800s to Milan, and 777-200LRs to Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City. The airline also has 777-300ERs, added from December 2023, plus two Airbus A330 freighters and Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft. Its older Boeing 717s and 757s have left the passenger fleet.

None of these passenger jets is a current-generation type, and the airline does not publish ages. In June 2023 a presidential decree cleared the purchase of six more Boeing jets, but we found no delivery of a newer-generation type. The fleet scores 60, level with Somon Air, which has one 737 MAX among older 737s.

Where it flies

Ashgabat has a large, modern airport, and the domestic network is short: a handful of cities such as Turkmenabat, Turkmenbashi and Balkanabat, mostly over flat desert, with mountains along the Iranian border south of the capital.

The neighbourhood is harder. Turkmenistan borders Iran and Afghanistan, and EASA has conflict-zone bulletins for both, valid to November 2026 and January 2027. Kazan, the airline's main Russian route, falls under EASA's Russia bulletin, which warns of drones and GPS jamming. In August 2023 the airline stopped flying to Moscow, citing the drone attacks on the Russian capital. The environment scores 58, level with Uzbekistan Airways and above Somon Air (55).

Before you book

• Check whether the route crosses Iran. Flights west and south from Ashgabat can be rerouted or cancelled at short notice when Iranian airspace closes. Book a connection with a long layover.
• For Russia, expect changes. The airline has dropped Moscow before on safety grounds. Have a plan B for Kazan.
• Compare on shared routes. Between Central Asia and Istanbul or Europe, Uzbekistan Airways and Azerbaijan Airlines have 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 audits and more public records to judge.

How we scored it

The accident record (90) is the strongest factor: no fatal accident in more than 30 years. Oversight (60) is held down by an opaque regulator and 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. The fleet (60) is older-generation Boeings with no new type yet. Incidents (60) reflect the 2019 EASA suspension and a record that is thin rather than proven clean, and the environment (58) reflects Iranian and Afghan borders and flights into Russia. Overall 72.