FLIGHT REVIEW: Uzbekistan Airways A320 – Riga to Tashkent

This is review details my experience on an Uzbekistan Airways Airbus A320 in May 2023. You can read my much more detailed full trip report of this flight by clicking here.

About the Airline

Expectations

Pre-Flight Experience

Having booked my flight through Trip, I cannot comment on Uzbekistan Airways’ booking process. Although I did face no issues when previously using this to book my domestic hop with the airline back in 2019. Unfortunately, Uzbekistan Airways’ website would not recognise my booking reference, and thus I was unable to manage my booking and pay to reserve seats in advance.

At the time of my flight, Uzbekistan Airways only provided online check-in services for those on domestic flights and flying to and from a limited number of international destinations, of which Riga was not one. Thus, despite not flying with hold luggage, I had no option other than to check-in for my flight at Riga Airport.

Costs

Airport Experience

Check-in for Uzbekistan Airways’ service to Tashkent opened a fairly standard three hours before departure, by which time, many of the flight’s passengers could already be seen lingering around the terminal. Ending up near the front of the snaking queue of passengers, most of whom had heaps of luggage, thankfully, I did not have ot wait too long to approach the desks. Once there, Once there, a friendly Riga Airport worker checked my passport and typed away before printing me off a boarding pass for the flight to Tashkent.

When it came to boarding, this was not announced in any particular order, and so this can be described as a little chaotic at best, with a scrum of passengers forming well in advance of boarding actually commencing. All appeared to be eager to barge onto the waiting Airbus as if it would depart Riga without them.

Seat and Cabin

Despite hoping to end up onboard one of Uzbekistan Airways’ latest inflight entertainment-equipped Airbus A321neos, sadly, it was not to be. Instead, I ended up on a much older Airbus A320 – the backbone of Uzbekistan Airways’ short and medium-haul flying.

As is the norm outside of Europe, the aircraft featured a ‘real’ Business cabin, complete with three rows of dark leather recliner seats in a 2-2 arrangement. Meanwhile, Economy featured 138 seats in the bog standard 3-3 layout. Despite not being an elderly jet, the seats in Economy appeared to be pleasantly chunky and much more comfortable looking than your all too common slim and lightweight seats of today.

Those expecting Uzbekistan Airways to have utilised their home country’s rich design heritage in the onboard aesthetic would have been disappointed. In Economy, each seat was covered in a nondescript blue fabric cover that sported a simple repeating pattern and was topped with a disposable fabric antimacassar.

Slightly disappointingly, as I journeyed to my seat, I could not help but notice that the aisle carpet was in dire need of replacement, as this seemed to be in a very worn state. Meanwhile, the area around my seat featured some major signs of wear and tear, including frayed and worn-looking fabric, a broken audio control panel and plenty of scratches. However, returning to the positives, this was comfortable and reasonably spacious.

Lavatories

In total, two lavatories were available for usage by those in Economy. Overall, these were standard aircraft lavatories and, whilst lacking in any memorable bells or whistles, were clean enough and served their purpose – thus leaving me with nothing major to complain about.

Inflight Entertainment

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Despite the length of the flight, there was absolutely nothing provided by means of inflight entertainment, other than the moving map which was broadcast of the overhead screens throughout the flight. This included an inflight magazine, and the carrier’s monthly publication appears to no longer be published in paper format.

Catering

As the aircraft cruised high above Russia, around an hour into the flight the crew passed through the cabin distributing the late lunch/early dinner service. Two options were offered that day – the stereotypical ‘beef or chicken?’. Deciding on the beef, this turned out to be a stew that was served with rice and sweet corn. Meanwhile, I was absolutely delighted to be also handed a plastic box full to the brim with various side dishes. Specifically, this contained a salad with two slices of slightly stale-looking cucumber and lettuce with a slice of cheese, a small samsa (an Uzbek meat pastry), a muffin, a packaged bread roll, a packet of peanuts, two slices of orange, tubs of grape jam and butter, sachets of mustard and olive oil, a wet wipe and a packet containing plastic cutlery, salt, petter, sugar and serviettes. Whilst this was not the pinnacle of inflight cuisine, this was most certainly edible and just as I had been on my flight from Uzbekistan to Korea in 2019, I was left highly impressed by the quantity of food provided

Crew

On this flight, I experienced somewhat of a mixed bag experience with the crew. On the plus side, I received warm and friendly greetings during boarding. However later on during the flight, I found the crew to be cold and distant during the service and were almost totally absent from the aisles after the remains of the meal service had been collected.

Summary

Whilst not being the pinnacle of luxury, my experience with Uzbekistan Airways was far from dreadful and I was left with little reason not to fly with the carrier again. Granted, I probably would not fork out a massive amount to do so, nor would I go out of my way to fly on one of their Airbus A320ceos, but, they did get me to Tashkent on time and in one piece.