DUSHANBE, January 30, Asia-Plus — Boeing 757-200, leased by Tajik national air carrier TajikAir, made the first flight from Dushanbe to Moscow on January 26, Nazira Davlatova, a spokesman for TajikAir, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to her, Tajik national air carrier has wet leased the aircraft from Russia’s VIM-Avia Airlines. She noted that wet-leased Boeing 757-200 is intended for replacing TU-154s on medium and long-distance air routes.
Wet leasing of aircraft involves the contracting of the aircraft, personnel, insurance and maintenance services for a period of time from 1 month to 1 or 2 years.
“At first, the flights will be operated by Russian crews but then they will be replaced by Tajik crews,” said Davlatova, “10 pilots, 25 air engineers and 25 flight stewards of TajikAir will take refresher courses at training centers in Russia and European countries”
As it had been reported earlier, Vim-Avia Airlines has received license from Tajikistan to operate regular flights from Ufa, the capital of Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, to Dushanbe.
The Russian air company will utilize Boeing 757-200 to operate flights to Tajikistan. The flights will be operated on Fridays starting from February.
The Boeing 757 is an American short to medium range narrow-body commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was launched by Eastern Air Lines and British Airways to replace the Boeing 727 and entered service in 1983. Production of the 757 ended on October 28, 2004 after 1,050 had been built. The final aircraft was delivered to Shanghai Airlines on November 28, 2005. As of July 2007, a total of 1,019 Boeing 757 aircraft remain in airline service
