Uzbekistan Airways, national air company, will turn 15 on 28 January. On this day in 1992, President Islam Karimov signed a decree on creation of the O`zbekiston Havo Yo`llari company with a status of the national air carrier.

Today Uzbekistan Airways carries out flights to more than 40 cities of the world and has representative offices in 24 states. The number of passengers using the company?s services makes up about 2 million every year.

If in the beginning of its operation O`zbekiston Havo Yo`llari had mostly old passenger planes, to date it has renewed its fleet and has 16 modern liners, including Boeing-767-300ER, Boeing-757-200, ?-310 and RJ-85. It also has locally made Il-114-100, as well as freight carriers Il-76.

To meet the needs of the new planes, the company had to renew the ground technical base. In accordance with the special government program, airports in the capital and other large cities were fully modernized. Of 12 airports belonging to Uzbekistan Airways, 5 (Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench and Termez) now have the international status and can accept all types of modern planes.

In 2006, Uzbekistan Airways carried about 1.7 million passengers, 1.6% up from 2005.

The company currently employs about 14,000 people.