On Thursday, April 13, top managers of Tajikistan’s privately owned airline Somon Air met herewith with a delegation of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), led by Kashgar Mayor Yasenjan Yakhep.
The parties reportedly discussed issues related to cooperation in field of civil aviation. They, in particular, discussed the possibility of launching of an air route from Dushanbe to Kashgar.
“We consider the city of Kashgar as one of directions in China, where flights could be launched. This will certainly bring our countries even closer. We intend to start studying the issue of launching the flight,” Somon Air Director-General Abdulqosim Valiyev noted.
The parties also exchanged views on a number of issues related to expansion of the mutually beneficial cooperation.
Currently, Somon Air operates flights from Dushanbe to XUAR’s capital, Urumqi.
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.
Somon Air is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Somon Air's fleet consists of Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 family aircraft. The company is focused on expanding the route network of air transportation and the fleet, and currently operates regular flights from Tajikistan to Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, China, India, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Kashgar is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. With a population of over 500,000, Kashgar has served as a trading post and strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East and Europe for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. Now administered as a county-level unit, Kashgar is the administrative center of Kashgar Prefecture.
