DUSHANBE/JAN. 11 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik Air suspended its flights and sent staff home on unpaid leave, setting off speculation that it was about to declare bankruptcy.

Somon Air, Tajikistan’s privately-owned airline, is likely to be the main beneficiary of the bankruptcy. It has said that it will accept Tajik Air tickets for now and has already announced plans to lay on another weekly flight to Moscow from Dushanbe.

Tajik Air had operated three ageing Boeings on its international routes to Russia, Central Asian capitals and China, and Soviet-era Antonov planes on its domestic routes.

The Dushanbe-based Asia Plus news agency quoted officials at Tajik Air as saying that staff had been sent home to “optimise costs in difficult times”.

A source, though, said that bankruptcy was imminent.

“We have been systematically approaching this point in recent years,” Asia Plus quoted the unnamed source as saying. “The company has been kept on a weak oxygen feed, mastering its resources in a roundabout way in its own interests.”

He said that Tajik Air was often used to buy jet fuel from traders and then to sell it on to other aviation companies at inflated prices.

“The bulk of the profit of Tajik Air was derived through aviation kerosene” he said.
The jet fuel business is closely linked to corruption, although there have been no allegations of Tajik Air involvement in any unlawful practices.

As well as financial issues, Tajik Air has also had a patchy safety record and has regularly been ranked as one of the world’s 20 worst airlines to fly with. In 1993 a Tajik Air Yak-40 plane crashed while taking off at Khorog Airport, killing 82 people.

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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019