I am planning to book a holiday to Central Asia that in part uses Uzbekistan Airways. Should I be concerned? I can find little information regarding their safety record or service standards, and wonder if there is a website that shows ratings for the world's airlines? David Reed, Pembroke

Sunday Times travel expert, Richard Green, responds: It’s an understandable concern, especially as Uzbekistan was formerly part of the USSR and might be still using old Soviet-built aircraft. However, you’ll be pleased to learn that Uzbekistan Airways have upgraded their fleet to an all western built one, and fly from Birmingham and Heathrow to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent using the popular Boeing 757’s and 767’s. The domestic flights use western aircraft too.

The average age of its 16 aircraft is 9.2 years, which compares to Air France at 8.9 years, and British Airways at 10.8 years. You can find similar information for a large number of airlines at Air Fleets.

As for the standard of the airline’s service, the Skytrax is a good resource to find out what other passengers think about an airline. Based on thousands of responses from the public, who contribute their recent experiences to the site, each airline is ranked with a star rating, from five stars being the best, to no stars being the worst. Uzbekistan Airways is currently a 2-star airline, which puts it in company with Indian Airlines, Olympic Airlines, and Lithuanian Airlines.

In short, I wouldn’t make a habit of flying with Uzbekistan Airways, but for a one off holiday, their western-built aircraft and reasonable fleet age and safety record would give me enough comfort to use them without much worry.

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