Uzbekistan Airways launches "ferry flight" to Changi on 15 January 2023

 Report, image by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Image of a Uzbekistan Airways B767-300ER aircraft, that used to operate commercial flights to Changi Airport Terminal 3 from Tashkent before the pandemic : Researcher's Picture

On 15 January 2023, there is the conflicting flight record of Singapore Changi Airport in its ichangiapp database concerning the Uzbekistan Airways passenger flight HY3505, whose status reflects "CONFIRMED" at 9.50 am on 15 January, but is marked "CANCELLED" at 10.30 am on the same day. The flight was to be operated by Uzbekistan Airways' B767-300ER as shown above. However, FlightRadar24 does not have record showing HY3505 arriving in Changi and the ichangiapp record can no longer be retrieved on 16 January 2023.

The Sayacinta - Airport reporter did searches on the FlightRadar24 and discovered that Uzbekistan Airways launched once-off flight to Changi from Tashkent not with B767-300ER and not under the flight code HY3505, but under HY3503 with its Dreamliner 787-8 aircraft, on 15 January 2023. The flight terminated at Changi Airport Terminal 2.

According to FlightRadar24, Uzbekistan Airways special flight HY3503 departed from Tashkent for Changi at 12.41 am, landed in Changi Terminal 2 at 10.42 am and left Changi for Tashkent at 12.55 pm under flight HY3504. The outbound flight for Tashkent was expected to land in Tashkent at 5.14 pm.

According to Changi Airport on 16 January 2023, flight HY3504 left for Tashkent at 12.50 pm on 15 January 2023 and the airport said the special flight to Changi under HY3503 was a "ferry flight", meaning there are no passengers onboard the flight except the crew and it does not reflect HY3503 in its database for "confidential reason". The Dreamliner also left Changi with no passengers onboard. 

Sayacinta - Airpost has proposed Changi Airport to reflect flight status of any special aircraft flight in its database like it did for Bhutan Airlines' charter flights recently since it calls itself a hub airport attracting all kinds of flight operators.

Presently, Uzbekistan Airways only operates regular commercial flights to Suvarnabhumi and KLIA in Southeast Asia. Sayacinta - Airpost has contact the airline for comment on when it plans to resume commercial flight to Changi from Tashkent.

Meanwhile, concerning the conflicting flight record of Changi on Uzbekistan Airways, this is not the first time. Previously, it kept showing flights of Chongqing Airlines, OQ2095/OQ2096 on Thursdays but these flights were cancelled on the flight dates after confirming the arrivals but Chongqing Airlines and its code-sharing flight partner China Southern have denied plans to resume flights to Changi from Chongqing.