DUSHANBE, April 30, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik air company, Somon Air, has taken Boeing 737-300 on financial leasing.
According to the Somon Air press center, negotiations on this subject have been conducted between Somon Air and Boeing Capital Corporation since January 2011.
Boeing 737-300 will be mainly used for operating flights from Dushanbe to Khujand. This aircraft is agnominated by name of Tajik poet Mirzo Tursunzoda.
The 737-300 was launched in 1981 by both USAir and Southwest Airlines becoming the first model of the 737 Classic series. The aircraft has a typical capacity of 128 passengers in a two-class configuration (137 seats in a one-class coach seating configuration). In December 2008, Southwest Airlines selected Boeing to retrofit its 737-300s with new avionics, in order to improve commonality with its 737-700s, as well as to support the Required Navigation Performance initiative.
Besides, two Boeing 737-900s and one Boeing 737-300 are expected to arrive in Tajikistan this year, bringing the number of Western type aircraft in the Somon Air fleet to six, the press service said.
Somon Air is an airline based in Dushanbe. It is Tajikistan”s first private airline. Somon Air is also the first airline in Tajikistan to launch an online booking system. The airline uses the Boeing 737 in its fleet.
Somon Air now operates to the following destinations: China (Urumqi); Germany (Frankfurt am Main); Kazakhstan (Almaty); Russia (Khanty-Mansisysk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Orenburg, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg); Tajikistan (Khujand);Turkey (Istanbul); and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai).
In the meantime, the company to launch two new international air routes. Beginning on May 8, the air company will operate flights to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The flight will be operated once two weeks – on Sundays. In May, Somon Air will also launch an air route from Dushanbe to Simferopol, Ukraine. It will be once-weekly service; the flight will be operated on Thursdays.
