In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, the head of the Civil Aviation Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, Dilshod Safarzoda, noted yesterday that parity in air traffic between Tajikistan and Russia has been violated despite the existing agreement between the two countries.
Safarzoda, in particular, noted Russia’s domination of air traffic between the two countries has resulted from lack of resources in Tajikistan itself.
According to him, Tajikistan has permission to operate flights to almost all regions of the Russian Federation, but it but does not have the opportunity to operate flights there.
“Currently, the Tajikistan’s only operating airline – Somon Air — has a limited fleet: four Boeing 787-800s and two Boeing 737-900s,” said Safarzoda. “Once we become competitive and as soon as we can provide 50% of air travel [between Tajikistan and Russia], we will increase the number of flights.”
He further noted that five Russian airlines now operate flights between Russia and Tajikistan: Utair; Ural Airlines; Nordwind Airlines; Siberia Airlines (S7 Airlines); and Yamal Airlines.
