DUSHANBE, November 24, 2011, Asia-Plus — A newly acquired Somon Air Boeing 737-900 landed at Dushanbe International Airport today, bringing a total number of aircraft in the company’s fleet to five.
The Somon Air press center reports it is the second Somon Air Boeing 737-900 assembled in Seattle especially by order from Somon Air.
The aircraft reportedly shipped more than US$115,000 worth of donated medical supplies to the country. The donated medical supplies were shipped to Tajikistan in the framework of the Humanitarian Delivery Flights program due to efforts of Boeing, Somon Air, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, the U.S. Department of State and Project HOPE.
The Boeing Humanitarian Delivery Flights program is a collaborative effort among Boeing, airline customers, domestic nonprofits and international non-government organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to communities in need around the world. Through this program, items such as medical supplies, clothing and educational materials are loaded into the empty cargo space of new airplanes and transported during their initial delivery to the customer”s home destination for distribution to areas in need or crisis.
The aircraft named after National Hero of Tajikistan Bobojon Ghafurov will be used to operate flights from Dushanbe to Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Istanbul (Turkey), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Urumqi (China), to Bangkok (Thailand) and Seoul (Korea).
We will recall that Somon Air presented its first Boeing 737-900 named after National Hero of Tajikistan Shirinsho Shotemur on September 29. It also transported donated medical supplies to Tajikistan.
Boeing 737-900 is considered to be the longest and most powerful variant to date. Because the -900 retained the same number of exits as the -800, seating capacity was limited to 189 in a single-class layout. The 737-900 also retained the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) and fuel capacity of the -800, trading range for payload. These shortcomings until recently prevented the 737-900 from effectively competing with the Airbus A321.
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, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Orenburg, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg); Saudi Arabia (Jeddah); Tajikistan (Khujand); Turkey (Istanbul); Ukraine (Simferopol); and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai).
