Somon Air restarts Tashkent route

Tajiki carrier Somon Air is to resume flights from capital Dushanbe (DYU) to Tashkent (TAS) in Uzbekistan.

The service will recommence on Friday Jan. 29 and operate weekly, departing from Dushanbe at 10:30 a.m. local time and from Tashkent at 1 p.m. local time. Travelers will be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival after both legs.

The TAS route will be served by the airline’s Boeing 737 equipment and represents further network restoration for Somon, after restarting scheduled service to Turkey and the UAE recently following a complete shutdown of borders for several months in 2020.

Flights remain suspended to/from Uzbekistan and Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa and the UK.

Watch: Fireside chat with Somon Air CEO Captain Thomas W Hallam

Somon Air recently told Routes that a potential order for Boeing 737 MAX jets was back on the table after originally collapsing following the aircraft’s grounding.

“We’ve reintroduced discussions with Boeing for either MAX 8s or MAX 9s to either replace some of our airplanes or to retain them,” Somon Air CEO Thomas W Hallam said.

“It depends on the finance but we’ll either do it to replace [older aircraft] or we could add them to our fleet and have a larger fleet moving forward.”

Photo credit: Somon Air

Wesley Charnock

Wesley Charnock is Content Marketing Director for Aviation Week Network.