Tajikistan’s privately-owned air carrier Somon Air reportedly intends to file lawsuit against air ticket agents that have been engaged in deceiving passengers.
The Somon Air press center says the airline will open its own office for own round-the-clock ticket sales on February 1.
“The airline has made request to the competent bodies for introducing criminal proceedings against air ticket agents who were engaged in deceiving passengers,” the Somon Air press center said. The press center refrained from giving further details.
Recall, Tajik national air carrier Tajik Air has actually suspended it operations stopping flights practically on all air routes. Experts say it can be ruled out that the company will be declared bankrupt with further handover to private hands.
The national airline has experienced great financial difficulties since the end of the zero years. Specialists of the airline say that in such conditions the carrier turned out to be due to high prices for jet fuel and the unstable economic situation. With no fuel, Tajik Air was forced to announce it was halting all scheduled flights until at least March. All the pilots, crew and ground staff have been put on unpaid leave.
Somon Air has taken over the Tajikistan-Russia routes. Some media reports say that Tajik Air had weeks’ worth of fully sold-out flights planned to Moscow and St. Petersburg and seemed to have reached an agreement with Somon Air for the latter to take on those ticket-holders, but air ticket agents began to sell tickets for those very same flights, depriving Tajik Air customers of potential seats.
Somon Air is the first private airline in Tajikistan with an office headquartered in Dushanbe. The airline operations are based at Dushanbe International Airport. The airline started operating on February 5, 2008 with regular flights to Moscow and Dubai.
Somon Air also serves as the official carrier of President of the Republic of Tajikistan and other Tajikistan high-ranking officials.
Since formation, Somon Air has been primarily focused on passenger service and transportation to Eastern Europe and other locations. Most flights to international destinations operate from Dushanbe.
The airline uses the Boeing 737 in its fleet. Somon Air now operates 2 Boeing 737-300s, 2 Boeing 737-800s and 2 Boeing 737-900ERs.
