Uzbekistan Airways was the launch customer for the Ilyushin Il-114; it took delivery of the first, locally assembled aircraft, in July 1998.[5] In June 1998, the airline took delivery of the last-built Airbus A310 ever (msn. 706, reg. UK-31003). Two more Boeing 757-200s were directly ordered from Boeing in April 1999. Late in 1999, the company took ownership of the first of these two 184-seater Boeing 757-200.
By April 2000, the airline had 16,296 employees. At this time, its fleet comprised three Airbus A310-300s, three Antonov An-12s, one Antonov An-24, 18 Antonov An-24Bs, three Antonov An-24RVs, three Boeing 757-200s, two Boeing 767-300ERs, three Avro RJ85s, four Ilyushin Il-114s, two Ilyushin Il-62s, six Ilyushin Il-62Ms, ten Ilyushin Il-76Ts, nine Ilyushin Il-86s, 15 Tupolev Tu-154Bs, two Tupolev Tu-154Ms and 19 Yakovlev Yak-40s. Destinations served at the time included Almaty, Amsterdam, Andizhan, Ashgabat, Athens, Baku, Bangkok, Beijing, Bishkek, Bukhara, Chelyabinsk, Delhi, Dhaka, Ekaterinburg, Fergana, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Jeddah, Karshi, Kazan, Khabarovsk, Kuala Lumpur, London, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow, Namangan, New York, Novosibirsk, Nukus, Omsk, Paris, Riyadh, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Samarkand, Seoul, Sharjah, Simferopol, St. Petersburg, Tashkent, Tel Aviv, Termez, Tyumen, Ufa and Urgench. Two more Boeing 767-300ERs, equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 powerplants, were ordered in 2001.
The airline also saw an increase in its yearly profit with an increase of almost 70% to UZS687 billion soums, or approximately $56 million US dollars.
The start of 2026 brought more good news for the Uzbek flag carrier as it revealed a profit for the previous year of over $100million US dollars, as well as record passenger numbers of 6.6 million, over double the amount compared to 2018 [28] Nonetheless the airline does face challenges, as its rapid growth has been hampered by a shortage of new aircraft. Chairman Shukhrat Khudaykulov commented that whilst the airline operated more than 52,000 flights throughout the year, an increase of 8% compared to 2024, this 8% growth is “Modest” and that there still remains “…significant unmet demand”. [29]
Despite facing delays in deliveries of new aircraft Uzbekistan Airways has pushed ahead with regional expansion in cities outside the capital such as Andijan in the east of the country with new links to its Tashkent hub, Saint Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, as well as the Turkish capital Istanbul. The airline had stopped services from the airport in March 2023, but after a hiatus of 2 and a half years will now operate 10 flights a week operated with A320neos. [30] [31] The nearby city of Namangan also saw growth with new connections to Krasnodar in Russia as well as New Delhi, the city’s first Indian route. [32] [33] Tashkent has also seen regional expansion, with a new twice-weekly route to the Kazakh city of Atyrau starting from March 2026. [34] March also sees the launch of flight to a pair of new cities in China with the new A321LRs serving Hangzhou, and Shenzhen being linked to Tashkent with the 787-8. [35] The airline expects to receive 4 additional aircraft in 2026 to support this expansion, bringing its total number above 50 for the first time. The chairman anticipates that the fleet will double in size by 2030, stating “We already see strong market demand and intend to expand further”. [36]
