It seems to be a bit of a rocky start of long-haul flights for Centrum Air – one of Uzbekistan’s low-cost airlines looking to challenge the national carrier on longer-haul services to the likes of Europe. In this week’s schedule update filed to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Centrum Air has removed its plan for services to Manchester this summer that were meant to begin at the end of March.

The Tashkent-Manchester service was to mark one of the carrier’s first routes to Europe, building the Uzbekistan capital into its transit hub connecting East and West. The removal of flights from schedule filings has also been reflected in booking systems, with Manchester no longer listed on the carrier’s website. It planned to use Airbus A321neo aircraft on this route.

It is not immediately clear why Centrum Air has had to downsize its European operation. Aerospace Global News has reached out to the company for comment.

Centrum Air won’t fly to Manchester, but Northern Europe is still on the table

Alongside flights to the United Kingdom, Centrum Air has also planned flights to Frankfurt and Copenhagen this summer, launching on 30 and 31 March respectively. The new routes are to operate twice weekly.

Initially, it had filed an Airbus A321neo on flights to Manchester though this has been revised to an A320neo instead.

The carrier has fairly ambitious expansion plans. It hopes to add services to destinations like Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome. It most recently had a meeting with the French Ambassador to Uzbekistan to forge a plan for flights to Paris as of April 2027.

Qanot Sharq also recently downsized its UK operation

Qanot Sharq, another carrier based in Uzbekistan, recently launched its United Kingdom debut. It began flights to London Gatwick in December, but suspended it shortly after.

According to a schedule update a few weeks ago, the carrier removed planned twice-weekly flights between January and March 2026. Flights will return at the end of March using Airbus A321LR or Airbus A321XLR equipment.

Flight growth on the Uzbekistan-Europe market is considerable

According to information from Cirium, flights connecting Uzbekistan with the European Union and the United Kingdom have grown at a significant rate. This year, flights are up 44% compared to the 12 months ending December 2025.

This is driven by several new routes, including the UK connections mentioned above. Uzbekistan Airways’ growth has been modest in comparison, with a recorded 6% increase in flights according to Cirium. For comparison, Qanot Sharq grew more than 500%. Uzbekistan Airways remains the largest on the market by far, though.

Moldovan low-cost carrier FlyOne just announced that it would be launching a brand-new Tashkent-based subsidiary with flights launching to “Russia, Europe and the Middle East” from 6 April 2026.

The carrier will add service to Baku, Riga, Tel Aviv, Chisnau and several cities in Russia, it says. This comes after it acquired Uzbek carrer Asia Union Airlines in July 2025.

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