Uzbekistan is preparing to sell its entire stake in the airline Humo Air for a second time, according to a presidential decree issued August 28 — even as conflicting government records leave the carrier's true ownership unclear.
The decree lists a 100 percent stake in Humo Air among a batch of state assets to be sold through public tenders in 2026-2027. But the move has raised eyebrows: Humo Air was already privatized once, in late 2022, when Swiss investment firm ValleyRoad Capital S.A. bought the company outright for 27.2 billion soms (about $2.4 million) and relaunched it as a low-cost carrier.
The new decree asserts that the state has since reclaimed full ownership of the airline, without explaining when or how that happened.
Adding to the confusion, official data from Uzbekistan's Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations, current as of September 8 — just weeks after the decree — tells a different story: it shows ValleyRoad Capital still holding 51 percent of Humo Air, with the remaining 49 percent held by the state's Agency for Management of State Assets.
Asked to explain the discrepancy, the agency said that the investment agreement with ValleyRoad has already been terminated and that full ownership is being transferred back to the government.
"The agreement has already been terminated, and as a result the full 100 percent stake is being returned. The corresponding transfer of ownership will be formalized within the next few days," the agency said.
A rocky flight path
Humo Air's brief history has been turbulent from the start. The carrier was launched in January 2020, built on the remains of a state-owned special aviation-operations company, and initially flew a fleet of 43 Soviet-era Antonov An-2 biplanes on short domestic routes as a cheaper alternative to flag carrier Uzbekistan Airways. Its first scheduled service, launched in December 2021, connected Ferghana and the Sokh enclave twice a week.
The airline's fortunes changed in late 2022, when the government sold its stake to ValleyRoad Capital. The Swiss investor committed to acquiring 18 aircraft by 2026 — including three by mid-2023 — and to transforming Humo Air into a modern low-cost carrier.
That transformation got off to a slow start. The first three aircraft, originally expected by June 2023, arrived late, delaying the launch of passenger flights until December. Once underway, Humo Air began flying from Tashkent to Nukus, Samarkand, Urgench and Karshi, expanding in January 2024 to add a Samarkand–Urgench route and service between Tashkent and Ferghana. By then, the airline was operating two leased Airbus A320-200s from Bulgaria's Fly2Sky.
The expansion proved short-lived. In late February 2024, Humo Air abruptly grounded its entire fleet, announcing a suspension of all flights from March 10 for what it called a "reset" ahead of a planned push into international markets. Days later, the airline said it had agreed to return both Airbus jets to Fly2Sky, citing lease terms that it said were incompatible with its business plan. One aircraft went back to the lessor on March 2; the second was to fly its final routes by March 10.
At the time, Humo Air said it hoped to secure aircraft from a new lessor by April and resume flights soon after, with an eye toward opening international routes to destinations such as Almaty, Istanbul and Dubai while keeping its domestic network intact.
It remains unclear whether that fleet renewal ever took place, or what led to the airline's apparent return to state control less than two years after it was privatized. With the government now moving to put Humo Air back on the market, the carrier's ownership — and its flight schedule — remain very much up in the air.
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