Somon Air (SZ, Dushanbe) will resume limited scheduled passenger flights to Russia later next month after officials from the Tajik and Russian governments successfully resolved yet another bilateral rights impasse last week.
The privately-owned carrier was banned from Russia just prior to Christmas last year after Tajik authorities barred Yamal Airlines (YC, Salekhard) from running flights between Zhukovsky and Khudzhand. The ensuing impasse focussed on whether Ramenskoye/Zhukovsky airport is a de-facto Moscow gateway. In the Tajiks' eyes it is, whereas in Russia's it isn't and therefore does not affect the parity requirement of the two countries' Bilateral Air Services Agreement.
However, following bilateral talks in Dushanbe last week, Russia's Deputy Transport Minister Sherali Ganjalzoda said Russia and Tajikistan had agreed to lift restrictions on Somon Air and Yamal Airlines flights between the two countries.
"An agreement has been reached to lift the embargo on flights performed by Somon Air to four cities - Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo, Krasnodar, Ufa, and Orenburg," he told Russia's Tass News Agency. "The Tajik side has confirmed that the second Russian air carrier - Yamal Airlines - has been permitted to fly from Zhukovsky airport to Tajikistan starting the summer IATA 2017 season."
Somon Air's flights are scheduled to resume on February 12 although service to Zhukovsky will only be performed on a parity basis i.e. when Yamal Airlines begins its services. At present, Ural Airlines (U6, Ekaterinburg) is the only other Russian operator to serve Tajikistan from Ramenskoye. However, it will be joined by Tajik Air (7J, Dushanbe) in the coming weeks.
