DUSHANBE, July 26, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, has resumed flights on the route from Dushanbe to Khorog, Gorno Badakhshan.
Well-informed source in the government told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon that a meeting was held on July 25 to discuss that issue. “The government decided to exempt Tajik Air from paying air navigation and airport service fees for domestic flights,” said the source, “An appropriate document on this subject will be signed in the near future after coordination with relevant agencies.”
Tajik Air says the Dushanbe-Khorog flight was resumed on July 25. “We resumed the flight in order to relieve social tension. Citizens have expressed dissatisfaction with suspension of the flight and we could not leave our passengers.”
The Tajik Air representatives hope that the issue of exempting the company from paying air navigation and airport service fess will be resolved soon company and Tajik Air will not sustain losses anymore on the domestic routes.
We will recall that Tajik Air suspended flight to Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (Gorno Badakhshan or GBAO) on July 15 because of its unprofitableness.
The Tajik-Air top manager Muzaffar Ishoqov told reporters on July 21 that they will be able to operate flights to Khorog only if they are exempted from paying air navigation and airport service fees on this route. Ishoqov said that sometimes monthly losses from the Dushanbe-Khorog flight had been estimated at 100,000 U.S. dollars.
“We are ready to operate flights to Khorog and other cities of the country only if the company is exempted from paying air navigation and airport service fees on the domestic routes,” Ishoqov said, adding that the flight from Dushanbe to Khujand is also unprofitable.
Tajik Air now operates flights on two domestic air routes: Dushanbe-Khorog and Dushanbe-Khujand. Tajik Air uses Antonov AN-28 (a 2-engined light prop transport aircraft) to operate flights to Khorog and a ticket for this flight costs US$90.00. To operate flights to Khujand, the national air carrier uses Antonov AN-24 and Boeing 737-200 and passenger fare on this route is US$78.00.
