Tajik national carrier launches air route in Mashhad

DUSHANBE, December 21, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, operated the flight from Dushanbe to Mashhad, Iran’ second largest city after Tehran, on December 18 with only 11 passengers on board despite discounts announced for this route for the period until December 31, the Tajik Air press center reports.

A 124-seat Boeing-737 was used to operate this flight.  “From Mashhad to Dushanbe, the plane flew with only eight persons on board,” the source said. 

We will recall that Tajik Air planned to operate the flight from Dushanbe to Mashhad on November 13, but the flight was postponed due to lack of passengers.

Experts note that passenger traffic usually decreases during autumn-winter period and many air companies reduce the number of flights during the winter season.  According to them, it was a mistake of the company management to launch the air route from Dushanbe to Mashhad during the “passive” season.

Tajik Air (Tajikistan Airlines) is the national airline of Tajikistan.  The airline has its main hub at the Dushanbe airport, and it retains a secondary focus point at the Khujand airport.

The company started operations on September 3, 1924 as Tajik Aviation. Its first route was Bukhara to Dushanbe, served by Junkers F-13 aircraft.  It is the sixth oldest airline still in operation.

Tajik Air now serves the following destinations: China (Urumqi); Iran (Tehran, Mashhad); Kazakhstan (Almaty); Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek); Russia (Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg, Samara, Sochi, Surgut, and Yekaterinburg); Tajikistan (Khorog and Khujand); and United Arab Emirates (Sharjah).

The Tajik Air fleet includes 34 aircraft; of them, eleven are in service: one Boeing 757-200; two Boeing 737-500s; two TU-154Ms; two AN-28s; one AN-24; one Yak-40; and two helicopters Mi-8MTV.