Hard Times for Tajik Airline

Tajikistan’s national air carrier is going through difficult times, with price controls making domestic flights unprofitable and stiff competition on international routes. Some observers argue that in addition to restructuring, Tajik Air would actually benefit from more domestic competition, because this would allow the current fare restrictions to be lifted.



Tajik Air is steadily losing money on its domestic flights, and says the ticket prices established by the government’s antimonopoly commission means these routes are no longer commercially viable. As a result, the national carrier only flies to Khujand in the north and Khorog in the south east, both of which are difficult to get to by road from Dushanbe at certain times of the year. In Soviet times, there were air links with more parts of the country.



Tajik Air still has an effective monopoly on domestic flights. The private Samar Air, which flies between Dushanbe and Khujand, is its only rival.



On international routes out of Tajikistan, foreign air operators account for two-thirds of all flights. An NBCentralAsia source at Tajik Air says that unless the carrier leases more western-standard planes for international routes, it will lose more ground to the competition By the end of February, Tajik Air will have only four TU-154 planes left in service for international flights, and their operating life is only another five years, according to reports from the Avesta news agency.



Davlatnazar Kurbonov, head of monopoly regulation at the ministry for economic development and trade, believes that encouraging greater domestic competition with private companies that “fight for every passenger” will significantly improve Tajik Air’s flights and service levels.



Mirzo Mastongulov, a former executive director of Tajik Air, agrees that the emergence of three to four private competitors will force the carrier to look for solutions and acquire new planes.



Firuz Hamraev, a deputy director of Tajik Air, told NBCentralAsia that the company has no objection to private airlines as long as they meet national aviation standards.



However, Negmatullo Sohibov, head of the commercial aviation department at the Tajik transport ministry, said the only application for an operating license that it has received recently has been from Somon Air.



Mastongulov said that as part of a structural overhaul, Tajik Air could be divested of its ownership of Tajikistan’s airports, a move which would allow the company to focus on developing as an airline business.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)