DUSHANBE, October 5, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has announced the contest for the position of head of the Civil Aviation Department.
The previous head of this department, Alisher Rustamov, has reportedly quitted voluntarily and Ismoil Jobirov is currently the acting head of the Civil Aviation Department.
It is already the third replacement of head of the Civil Aviation Department this year and the last replacement has taken place ahead of the official ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) audit, expected in November this year.
The acting head of the Civil Aviation Department, MoT, Ismoil Jobirov, assured Asia-Plus that work on addressing the deficiencies is under way. “We hope to eliminate all the deficiencies before the visit of the ICAO delegation to our country,” Mr. Jobirov said.
We will recall that the Tajik civil aviation authorities have received counseling and technical assistance from ICAO, whose delegation worked in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in early June 2013.
According to the Tajik civil aviation authorities, they were given some time to address the deficiencies. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reportedly also provided technical assistance provided by the EU to implement the road map, under which the Tajik aviation authorities presently work closely with ICAO.
The ICAO working group has identified many shortcomings that have not been eliminated in the last five years after the ICAO delegation’s visit to Tajikistan.
As previously reported, Tajik civil aviation authorities of Tajikistan fear that ICAO may enter Tajikistan into a so-called “black list,” and Tajik airlines will not be able to operate their flights to Europe.
The last ICAO’s check in Tajikistan was held in 2008. The Central Asia Aero News (C.A.A.N.) reports that at that time, Tajikistan was prescribed to eliminate a number of shortcomings, but there were no any good reasons for entering the country into the “black list.” At present, the situation has changed, and according to some reports and SAFA (apron control – Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft) the Tajik airlines gained a greater number of negative points, which may adversely affect the results of the upcoming audit, C.A.A.N. said.
At present, the ICAO’s “black list” includes the airlines from such CIS countries, as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova and many others. These airlines are considered to be unsafe for passengers, and flights to Europe are prohibited for them, and the ICAO member countries are not recommended to give permission for flights operated by the airlines from these countries. Kazakhstan has been trying to get out of this list for several years, trying to fulfill all the stringent requirements from ICAO, but they have not been able to do it so far.
Tajik MoT, however, believes that Tajikistan may be able to avoid harsh sanctions from ICAO.
At present, three cargo air carriers are registered in Tajikistan, namely Khatlon Air, Asia Airways and Par Air and four passenger-carrying airlines, such as Tajik Air, Somon Air, East Air and Asian Express Airlines.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is a specialized agency of the United Nations, was created after signing the International Civil Aviation Convention in Chicago in December 1944. ICAO oversees the safe and orderly growth of international air services. The ICAO’s aim is to meet the population’s requirements in safe, regular, efficient and economical international air transport, and ensuring safe and orderly growth of international civil aviation worldwide. As of August 2012, 191 countries around the world are the ICAO members.
