DUSHANBE, June 8, 2009, Asia-Plus — “Specificity of our work is so that fluctuations of exchange of rate of the national currency, the somoni (TJS), will affect, first of all, our passengers,” Muzaffar Ishoqov, the director general of the Tajik first private air carrier, Somoni Air, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“We pay for services rendered by airports in dollars,” said Ishoqov, “To airports in Tajikistan, we pay in the national currency under the current exchange rate fixed by the National Bank of Tajikistan, and therefore, the national currency devaluation leads to increase of price of air tickets that are sold in somoni.”
He noted that the company was not engaged in selling air tickets for its flights by itself, using services of separate agencies. “Our company receives money from these agencies within 10 business days in the national currency and if during these ten days, any somoni jump occurs, we will receive fewer funds,” the director general said, adding that they are currently assessing damage caused to the company by this year’s currency jumps. According to him, they lost some 700,000-800,000 U.S. dollars last year from fluctuations of the currency exchange rate alone.
Somon Air is an airline based in Dushanbe. It is Tajikistan’s first private air carrier. Somon Air was granted an operating license and aviation operator certificate in 2006. As of January 16, 2009, the Somon Air fleet included Boeing 737-400 (which is operated by East Air) and Boeing 737-800.
