Private carrier Air Samarkand has been left without a passenger fleet. One of its aircraft — an Airbus A330 registered UK33001 — was recently dismantled at Istanbul Airport and sent for scrapping, according to the Telegram channel "Tashkent Sky News."
Per PlaneSpotters data, Air Samarkand's fleet history includes four aircraft: two Airbus A321s, one Airbus A330, and a Dassault Falcon 7X/8X business jet. Of these, only the business jet remains in the current fleet, currently parked at Tianjin Binhai International Airport.
The three passenger aircraft met different fates: — The Airbus A321-200 (UK32120), delivered to the airline in November 2023, was withdrawn from service in January 2026 and transferred by the lessor to Egypt's Nesma Airlines; — The Airbus A321neo (UK32121), which joined the fleet in March 2024, was returned to lessor Air Lease Corporation in October 2025 and has been operated by Centrum Air since January 2026; — The Airbus A330-300 (UK33001), withdrawn from the fleet in May 2025, ended up in Istanbul and was dismantled in August 2026.
In May 2026, the Telegram channel Aviation Data reported that Air Samarkand had stopped being counted in overall flight-hour statistics, as it no longer operates any flights.
Air Samarkand announced its launch in December 2022, planning to fly to 14 cities in Russia and Asia on two full-economy configured Airbus A320s. The carrier received its first aircraft 11 months later and began charter flights in December 2023. In February 2024, CEO Anton Khodzhayan outlined plans to launch scheduled service and expand the fleet to eight aircraft.
Financial difficulties became visible from September 2025, when reports emerged of delayed employee salaries, which Air Samarkand confirmed, attributing them to unplanned maintenance costs. In October 2025 the carrier suspended flights from Samarkand to Tel Aviv and Istanbul, citing "fleet and route network restructuring" and promising to resume flights in spring 2026 — which did not happen.