DUSHANBE, August 26, 2010, Asia-Plus — The government of Uzbekistan is still considering a government-to-government agreement with Tajikistan on air traffic management, the source at the state unitary enterprise, Tajikaeronavigtsiya (air navigation service), told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.
According to him, the Tajik side has already considered and approved the document. Tajik officials reportedly submitted the draft of a new permanent agreement for consideration to Uzbekistan in July.
“We are currently working under a temporary agreement singed on June 26,” the source said.
As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed the temporary agreement on air traffic control and collection of air navigation fees on June 26 at Uzbekistan”s insistence.
We will recall that the Tajikaeronavigatsiya director Anvar Maqsoudov told reporters on July 22 that the air navigation fee rate is set depending on weight of aircraft. If aircraft weighs 100 tons the rate of the charge for each 100 kilometers of flight will be US$65.00.
Besides, under the June 26 temporary agreement, each country”s air-traffic controllers take complete responsibility for guiding its planes to land. In addition, Uzbekistan has asked that Tajik planes no longer begin their descent to land in Sughd from Uzbek airspace.
In accordance with the terminated 1993 agreement, Uzbek air-traffic controllers guided planes overflying Uzbek territory to land in Tajikistan”s northern Sughd province, while Tajik air-traffic controllers provided similar guidance to Uzbek planes landing in Uzbekistan”s southern Surkhndarya province. Under the terminated 1993 agreement, Tajik and Uzbek air carriers were exempted from paying the air navigation fees for use of air spaces of the two countries.
