Uzbekistan Airways

Is Uzbekistan Airways safe?

Yes. Uzbekistan's national airline has not had a fatal accident in 20 years, and its last fatal passenger flight was in 2004. It has passed 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 audit, 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. More than half of its passenger jets are current types, mostly Airbus A320neo-family aircraft and Boeing 787s. We score it 74. It loses points for a fleet that still includes older 767s, for a run of low-speed runway excursionsRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary on snow, and for a network with many flights into Russian airspace. That puts it close to Azerbaijan Airlines (73) and below Air Astana (78).

What is the airline's accident history?

The last fatal accident was on 13 January 2004. A Yakovlev Yak-40 flying from Termez to Tashkent descended below the glideslope in low cloud, then levelled off and crossed the outer marker too high. The crew tried to land anyway, applied reverse thrust at 60 metres, then changed their minds and added power. The aircraft touched down 260 metres beyond the end of the runway, hit a concrete building and burned. All 37 people on board died.

That crash is now outside our 20-year window. So, by five days, is an October 2006 accident in which an Uzbekistan Airways An-2 biplane crashed in bad weather near Tashkent during a military parachute training flight, killing all 15 on board; it was not a passenger service. The only hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary inside the window is an An-24 written off at Zarafshan in August 2009, reportedly after the landing gear was raised too early on take-off. Information about it is sparse, and no injuries were reported.

All of these were Soviet-designed aircraft that the airline no longer flies on passenger services. The jets it uses today, A320s, 767s and 787s, have no hull loss with the airline. That is why the accident record scores 80: clean for 20 years, but on a moderate number of flights and with a history before that.

The record includes Uzbekistan Airways Express, the low-fare brand launched in August 2021. It is not a separate airline: Uzbekistan Airways flies it on its own routes with its own A320s, refitted with economy seats only, so those flights count here. Silk Avia, the domestic turboprop airline whose tickets Uzbekistan Airways sells, is different. It flies on the certificate of Uzbekistan Helicopters, a group subsidiary, under its own flight numbers and call sign, so it has its own page. In January 2026 the chairman said the group was studying a merger of Express and Silk Avia.

How modern is the fleet?

Mostly modern and getting younger. The chairman said the airline had 47 aircraft in January 2026. In July 2025 ch-aviation counted 10 A320neos, 5 long-range A321neos, 7 787-8s, 9 older A320s and 6 767-300ERs, plus two 767 freighters, two Airbus corporate jets, two Il-76 freighters and a Pilatus business jet. About 60% of the passenger jets are current types.

The plan is to at least double the fleet by 2030. Four leased aircraft are due in 2026, Airbus will deliver 14 more between 2028 and 2030, and Boeing 787-9s, part of a 22-aircraft Boeing deal, start arriving at the end of 2030. We found no published average age. Its maintenance arm, Uzbekistan Airways Technics, passed an EASA Part-145 supervisory audit in September 2026, which matters because many of the airline's checks are done in-house in Tashkent.

Which incidents should you know about?

None of them caused injuries, but some repeat:

• St Petersburg, March 2019. A 767 with 256 people on board skidded on wet snow while turning off the runway and stopped with its nose gear about 10 metres past the runway end.
• Minsk, January 2022. An A320 veered 90 degrees left at the end of its landing roll in snow showers and stopped with the nose gear off the runway. Belarus's investigators rated it an incident.
• Istanbul, August 2017. Tread came off a 767 main-gear tyre on landing and punctured the flaps and the underside of the wing.
• Engine shutdowns on a 757 in 2016, a 787 in 2022 and an A320 at Kazan in 2023, each followed by a safe landing.

Uzbekistan's own investigators publish very little, so most of what is known comes from foreign authorities and AeroInside. We treat the record as thin rather than clean, which keeps serious incidents at 65.

Where it flies, and what that means

Tashkent is a well-equipped hub with long runways. The network includes Europe, Turkey, the Gulf, South and East Asia, but Russia is one of its biggest markets, with flights to Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk and other cities. EASA's conflict-zone bulletin for Russian airspace, valid until 31 January 2027, warns that drone attacks can close major airports at short notice and that GNSS jamming and spoofing are common. Termez, on the southern border, is next to Afghan airspace, which has its own EASA bulletin. Summer heat in the Uzbek lowlands and winter snow at destinations in Russia add to the workload. The environment scores 58.

How to fly Uzbekistan Airways sensibly

• On Russian routes, leave long connections. Airport closures for drone attacks can delay arrivals by hours, and diversions are possible.
• Pick the 787 or A321neo on long flights where you can. They are the newest aircraft in the fleet; the 767s are the oldest passenger jets.
• If your trip does not need Russia, connect elsewhere. Routings through Istanbul, Dubai or Almaty, for example on Air Astana or FlyArystan, keep you out of the airports covered by EASA's Russia bulletin.

How we scored it

Accident record (80) and oversight (80) are the strongest factors: no counted fatal accident in 20 years, 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 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. The fleet (72) is getting younger but still includes 767s. Incidents (65) and the environment (58), with heavy exposure to Russian airspace, are the weaker factors. Overall 74.