DUSHANBE, June 9, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s first private air carrier, Somon Air, intends to introduce an electronic ticket system in the near future, the Somon Air director general Muzaffar Ishoqov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, elaboration of the company’s website for reserving a seat on Somon Air’s flights is nearing completion.
An electronic ticket or e-ticket is used to represent the purchase of a seat on a passenger airline, usually through a website or by telephone. This form of airline ticket has rapidly replaced the old multi-layered paper tickets (from close to zero to 100% in about 10 years) and became mandatory for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) members as of June 1, 2008. During the last few years, where paper tickets were still available, airlines frequently charged extra for issuing them. Once a reservation is made, an e-ticket exists only as a digital record in the airline computers. Customers usually print out a copy of their receipt which contains the record locator or reservation number and the e-ticket number.
Ishoqov further added that Somoni Air also intended to launch new air routes within the next two months. “We plan to operate flights to Frankfurt am Main, Urumqi (China) as well as Russian cities of Kransoyarsk, Tyumen, Sochi and Orienburg,” said Ishoqov, “We are currently at the stage of coordination of all necessary procedures with the countries, to which we plan to flight in the near future. The next stage may include opening of new international air routes, fro example to America and Southeast Asia.”
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.
