After months of negotiations and even ultimatums, the Russian air company has obtained permission for flights, but it does not hurry to use it.

Yamal Airlines, Russia, assures that it will start flying to Tajikistan’s Dushanbe and Khujand in early August 2017. However, the sale of air tickets is not yet open. Earlier, the Tajik aviation authorities after months of negotiations still allowed this airline to carry out six flights a week. However, Yamal is not in a hurry to start flights. And may lose this chance.

“Yamal Airlines was allowed to start flights to Tajikistan from July 1, 2017. However, the airline has not yet decided to begin operating these flights. This is most likely due to the low level of air passenger traffic from the Zhukovsky Airport. In any case, if the airline does not start its obligations with the beginning of the next month, we will be forced to transfer the right to carry out these flights to another air carrier,” Anvar Nurov, Deputy Director, Civil Aviation Department, Ministry of Transport, Tajikistan, informed the Asia Plus News Agency, Tajikistan.

Representatives of the airline assured the Ministry that they would start flights in early August.

Yamal Airlines’ flights to Tajik cities were agreed in May 2017. It was noted that there will be three flights a week to Dushanbe and the same number of flights to Khujand. At the same time, it was reported that the flights would begin on July 1^st. The air company will fly from the Moscow region’s Zhukovsky Airport.

Negotiations on granting Yamal Airlines with the right to carry out these flights continued between the aviation authorities of Tajikistan and Russia within six months. Sometimes it reached the ultimatums.

In January 2017, the parties agreed that with the beginning of the summer air navigation season (March 26^th), Yamal will receive permission to fly to Tajikistan. Russia then lifted the previously imposed restrictions on Tajikistan’s Somon Air.

However, with the onset of the summer season, the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistanchanged its mind, and suggested that Yamal Airlines should fly to Tajikistan’s Kulyab and Kurgan-Tube, instead of the capital city of Dushanbe. The Russian airline did not like this offer.

Then the Tajik side agreed Yamal Airlines to fly to Dushanbe and Khujand twice a week to each destination. But this also did not suit the Russian side, which sought almost daily flights for Yamal Airlines and Ural Airlines to Dushanbe and Khujand. Russia again imposed restrictions on the Somon Air’s flights to Moscow. They lasted a month.

In May 2017, they were lifted, as Tajikistan gave Yamal Airlines permission for flights to the country with the frequencies that the Russian air carrier insisted on. However, the airline itself has not yet decided to start flights to Tajikistan, and it has not begun selling its air tickets.

Earlier, the airline representatives said they would fly to Tajikistan in mid-June but these flights never began.