United Airlines Eyes 1st Flights To Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan: Here's Why

Published Oct 31, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT A graduate in German, Jake has a passion for history and regional aviation, and enjoys sampling new carriers and aircraft. He has visited OEM facilities as far and wide as Bristol, Toulouse, and Seattle, and recently enjoyed the milestone of flying his 150th sector as a passenger. Based in Norfolk, UK. United Airlines may be considering launching flights to the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the near future, based on comments made by Scott Kirby, the Star Alliance founding member's CEO, during a recent podcast. The airline is clearly taking these prospects seriously, as Kirby confirmed that one of his fellow United executives recently visited the two countries. A sizeable obstacle is currently preventing such plans from coming to fruition: Russian airspace is closed to US-based airlines as a reciprocal sanction. After all, this airspace offers the most direct route when flying from North America to Central Asia. However, United may be able to go the long way round with one-stop routes. Various Possibilities For United Airlines Credit: Craig Russell | Shutterstock Live & Let's Fly reported on Wednesday that, during a recent episode of the Cheeky Pint podcast, Kirby said that Patrick Quayle, United's Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, had visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this year. This represented a preliminary investigation, with United exploring the possibility of serving these countries without naming specific routes or aircraft. Nonetheless, Enilria noted that such links could certainly be possible, with Almaty and Tashkent within range of hubs such as Newark and Washington DC if Russian airspace reopened. Alternatively, Enilria also highlighted that United could serve Almaty and Tashkent from Hong Kong and Tokyo as fifth-freedom add-ons to existing transpacific hops. For now, Kirby explained why the carrier is unable to operate flights there. "We can’t fly there today because we can’t fly over Russia. This could work down the road." Existing Flights Are Limited Credit: Leonard Zhukovsky | Shutterstock While United's plans are only embryonic, there is clearly enough substance in the hope that airspace may soon reopen to US carriers for it to have begun considering Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan more seriously as destinations. This, Enilria adds, could be tied to optimism about the reopening of Russian airspace after Taiwan recently dropped such restrictions and resumed Russian overflights. Loading map… Drag to explore The only current nonstop route between Central Asia and North America links Tashkent with John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City. According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Uzbekistan Airways has operated it since 2017 using Boeing 787 Dreamliner widebodies. Crucially, Uzbekistan Airways can overfly Russian airspace. As detailed in our coverage linked below, a second Uzbekistan-based airline also began flights from Tashkent to New York City this year: Qanot Sharq. In this case, the carrier uses 265-seat Airbus A330 widebody twinjets for these flights, with one rotation in May, nine in September, and six in October. It will be interesting to see whether these rare flights return next year. Could Air Astana Join The Party? Credit: Air Astana As for Kazakhstan, the country currently has no nonstop flights to and from the US. However, Air Astana is reportedly eyeing a direct New York link as soon as next year. These flights would use Boeing 787-9s, and Air Astana ordered 15 of them last November. While Air Astana cannot currently fly to the US, it may soon be able to, as FAA auditors have reportedly visited Kazakhstan to assess civil aviation safety and compliance. With the final report expected next month, Air Astana could receive permission to operate US flights by the end of this year. It would then simply be a case of getting its 787s and their crews up to the required level of operational readiness.