The Uzbek government may allow a “prestigious foreign company” to manage Uzbekistan Airways (HY, Tashkent International) as one of the possible methods to help the country's beleaguered transport sector navigate the coronavirus crisis, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s office said on May 25.

Mirziyoyev discussed the issue and the sector’s prospects with cabinet members, his office said in a statement, and he tasked the Ministry of Transport with developing a business model to assist state-owned Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports overcome the consequences of the pandemic.

“The issues of attracting new carriers to the civil aviation market in order to increase competition and transfer Uzbekistan Airways to the management of a prestigious foreign company were considered,” it said without providing further details.

The statement also revealed plans to announce a tender for the modernisation of the country's airports, as well as to transfer the activities of the international airports at Andizhan, Bukhara, Karshi Khanabad, and Urgench into a public-private partnership.

Carrying 3.8 million passengers in 2019, Uzbekistan Airways currently operates ten A320-200s, two A320-200neo, four B757-200s, seven B767-300(ER)s, two B767-300(ERBCF), six B787-8s, two Il-76TDs, and a single ACJ320-200, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. In April, it said it was in the process of converting two of its seven B767-300(ER)s into makeshift freighters with the passenger seats removed.

On February 28, Uzbekistan's State Asset Management Agency listed Uzbekistan Airways among more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises to be preened for privatisation. It suggested the sale of a 49% stake in the carrier. Uzbek financial regulator the Capital Markets Development Agency was told to establish by June 1, together with international experts, a timetable for the sale of shareholdings in 25 of the companies.