Azerbaijan, Tajikistan to restore flights between capitals
By Rashid Shirinov
Regular flights between the capitals of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan will be resumed from December this year, Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported on November 20.
The agreement on launching regular flights of Tajikistan’s Somon Air company from December 2017 on the Dushanbe-Baku-Frankfurt-Baku-Dushanbe route was reached during a working visit of a delegation of the Somon Air and TALCO (Tajik Aluminium Company) in Baku.
This issue was discussed during a meeting of the Tajik delegation with the President of Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC Jahangir Asgarov, Director of Buta Airways Jamil Manizade and First Vice-President of Silk Way Airlines Teymur Mammadov.
The parties also made decisions on training, retraining and advanced training of Tajik specialists in the field of civil aviation on the basis of specialized educational institutions of Azerbaijan.
The opportunities for the restoration of direct flights between Dushanbe and Baku have been repeatedly discussed by the parties at various levels in recent years.
Such flights were launched in May 2012, but due to low ridership were suspended afterwards. Flights were resumed in March 2013, but then were suspended again for the same reason. New flights will be carried out twice a week.
Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, both post-Soviet countries, established diplomatic relations on May 29, 1992. Today the countries cooperate in a number of spheres, but they still have unused potential for cooperation in the tourism sector.
Given that both countries are rich in unique historical places, architecture, monuments and infrastructure, the forthcoming opening of direct flights will facilitate the development of mutual tourism, as well as business ties through strengthening the cooperation between tourism companies of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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