Uzbekistan’s national air carrier, Uzbekistan Airways, is expected to operate the first regular flight from Tashkent to Dushanbe on April 4, 2017.
The flight will be operated twice a week – on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Uzbekistan Airways will use A-320 to operate the flight between Tashkent and Dushanbe.
Meanwhile, it is still unknown when Tajikistan’s privately owned airline, Somon Air, will start operating flights between Dushanbe and Tashkent.
Recall, Uzbekistan canceled the first regular flight between Dushanbe and Tashkent scheduled for February 20.
Uzbekistan Airways has sent a letter to the Tajik aviation authorities laying all the blame at Somon Air. The letter, in particular, argued that Somoni Air had filed a request to effect charter flights and not regular scheduled flights.
It also claimed it only received the official paperwork authorizing the route on February 19, one day before the flight. That gave the insufficient time to adopt a decision, as the matter had to be considered by security services and air defense officials, the letter said.
The sales manager of Somon Air company, Alisher Rustamov, and several of his subordinates have been fired over the cancelation of the regular flight between Dushanbe and Tashkent.
Somon Air said on February 21 that Alisher Rustamov and his subordinates were fired after an internal investigation revealed the company had failed to provide the Tashkent airport with the necessary documents to resume the service as of February 20.
With the exception of a test flight on February 10, there have been no direct civilian flights between the two capitals since 1992.
Air links between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were suspended in 1992 at Tashkent’s initiative and the issue of resumption of the direct air communication between the two countries has been raised at meetings between state officials of the two countries more than once.
