Tajikistan’s privately owned air carrier Somon Air is resuming flights on the air route from Dushanbe to Urumqi (China).
After the two-year interruption, the first flight on this air route is expected to be operated on June 23, AZIZ Nabizod, the deputy director of the Civil Aviation Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, they sent an official letter to the Chinese authorities noting that Tajikistan is ready to resume flights to Urumqi in May 2020 and he received an official response the other day.
“The Chinese side also expressed readiness for resumption of flights on this air route,” Nabizod said.
“At first Somon Air and China Southern Airlines will operate one flight every two weeks and in the future, the number of flights will be increased,” he added.
Recall, flights operated by Tajikistan’s Somon Air and South China Airlines to China were suspended on April 10, 2020 due to the novel coronavirus crisis. Each of these air carriers operated flights from Dushanbe to Urumqi twice a week.
The flights on this air route were supposed to be resumed in October 2020 but they were delayed all the time. The Tajik said at the time that they were waiting for a response from the Chinese side.
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.
China Southern Airlines Company Limited is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and is the largest airline in China. Established on 1 July 1988 following the restructuring of the CAAC Airlines that acquired and merged a number of domestic airlines, the airline became one of China's "Big Three" airlines (alongside Air China and China Eastern Airlines), the world's sixth-largest airline measured by passengers carried and Asia's largest airline in fleet size, revenue, and passengers carried. With its main hubs at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport, the airline operates more than 2,000 flights to more than 200 destinations daily.
