An unnamed official of the private Panorama Airways has been taken into custody, the Prosecutor General's Office said today. The preventive measure was taken as part of a criminal case initiated by the Transport Prosecutor's Office against officials of the airline due to the “failure to take measures to bring back from Saudi Arabia passengers who went to Umrah, and other serious breaches of the law,” with investigation currently underway in this criminal case.
Reportedly, the case was launched under Fraud and Abuse of powers by officials of a private commercial or other non-state entity of the Criminal Code.
The Prosecutor General's Office noted that other details of the case were not disclosed in order to avoid obstructing the establishment of the truth.
On February 5, the company reported that more than 3,000 passengers returned home from February 2 to 4. “We are making every effort to organize the departure of passengers waiting for their flights as soon as possible,” the message says.
Panorama Airways suspended passenger flights on January 28 and resumed them on February 2. On this day, the company reported that “due to a number of unforeseen situations, flight schedules and operations in general were seriously disrupted.”
“In response to the current situation, in order to ensure maximum efficiency and transparency in the company’s activities, the decision was made to appoint a new operational management team. From February 2, we are fully restoring planned activities and are actively starting to solve the problem, in particular, the return of passengers from Saudi Arabia to Uzbekistan,” the company said then.
At the end of January, the Tourism Committee said it had warned a number of companies sending Umrah pilgrims. These are the companies FAYZ TOUR TRAVEL, MARYAM TRAVEL-AGENCY, MAHBUB TOUR, RAMAZAN TRAVEL SAYOHAT. XURMO TRAVEL UMRA had its license suspended for 10 days for organizing an Umrah pilgrimage without the appropriate license.
Panorama Airways, founded in 2021, made its first commercial flight on the Tashkent - Urgench - Tashkent route on December 22, 2022.
