TAJIKISTAN AIRLINES: Titov Street 31/2, Dushanbe Airport, Dushanbe, 734006, Tajikistan; Phone 7 (3772) 212 195; Fax 7 (3772) 510 091; Http://www. tajikistanairlines. com; Code 7J; Year Founded 1990. Tajik Air is formed in 1990 as the Tadzhik directorate of Aeroflot
Soviet Airlines based at Dushanbe Airport. On behalf of the monolithic state carrier, Tadzhik operates services to the north of tis base. When the Soviet Union and Aeroflot are reformed in 1992, the old organization becomes the independent state air company and flag carrier of the new south Asian republic. The new board of directors numbers as its members V. S. Avidzba, K. G. Lolaev, R. Kh. Roustamov, T. Kh. Khamidov,
V. S. Sharipov, and Mirzo A. Mustangolov. The latter is named director general and his workforce totals 2,743. A fleet of Russian built aircraft, including Tupolev Tu-154B/Ms, Tu-134As, Yakovlev Yak-40, and Antonov An-26s and An-24s is taken over from the Soviet directorate.
The company, without its previous chain of supply and support from Aeroflot, now enters what the company’s Web page will call “the period of the second birth of aviation” in the country. En route from Batumi to Chimkent via Baku on June 17, 1993, an An-26 with 5 crew and 35 passengers crashes 100 km. from Tbilisi, Georgia; there are no survivors.
One of commercial aviation’s most disastrous cases of airplane overloading occurs on August 28. Heavily armed ethnic rebels force 81 passengers to board a Yakovlev Yak-40 (designed to accommodate 28 passengers and a crew of 5) at Khorog Airport, Dushanbe, and force the plane and its crew of 5 to take off at high speed under threat of massacre.
The aircraft fails to rise and overruns the runway; its left main landing gear strikes a low embankment, 150 m. beyond the runway, while the right main landing gear hits a concrete machine gun nest 60 m. further on. The plane now plunges into the River Pyanj and only four passengers survive.
A Boeing 747SP-21 is leased from the American major United Airlines on November 28; christened Snow Leopard, it is employed to inaugurate scheduled flights toAlmaty, London (STN), and Sharjah.
In addition to the Jumbojet, the fleet in 1994 includes 1 Tupolev Tu-134, 3 Tu-154B-2s, and a number of smaller aircraft. The SP Boeing is returned to United Airlines on February 14.
Plans are made to inaugurate services to Bangkok, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
A number of new routes are inaugurated in 1995, including Karachi in March, New Delhi in April, and Kabul and Frankfurt in May. With assistance from foreign firms, reconstruction of the runway at Dushanbe Airport is begun. On December 30, the first flight of a Tu-154B is made into Koulyab Airport.
In 1996, a Tupolev Tu-134A is wet-leased long-term to Sasco Air Lines, Ltd. Service is started to Beijing, Ankara, and Jeddah. On December 18, the reconstruction of the airport runway at Dushanbe is completed. Fiscal returns diminish, despite introduction of the new routes and a name change to Tajikistan Airlines.
A number of company employees receive training during 1997 at institutions of higher education in Western Europe. Others are sent to study at the Kazakhstan Academy of Civil Aviation (KACA) Also, modern aeronautical navigation equipment is installed at the airports at Dushanbe and Khoujand and the airport at Koulyab is given international status.
On December 15, Flight 3183, a Tu-154B-2 with 8 crew and 77 passengers, crashes while on approach to Sharjah, UAE, after a flight from Khudzhand; there are no survivors. Reconstruction of the Dushanbe Airport air terminal begins in 1998. The company begins to equip its aircraft with modern navigational systems and equipment according to ICAO standards. The first ATC contoller graduates from the KACA return to Dushanbe to assume positions with the local airports. A group of student pilots and navigators is sent to study at the KACA.
In order to continue and expand services to Western Europe, the carrier is faced with the necessity of making its Tu-154s Stage 3 noise compliant. Six Tu-154B/Ms are modified, at a cost of $1 million each.
The Russian currency crisis, which begins in August, has an impact. Flights to Beijing, Ankara, Jeddah, Frankfurt, and London (STN) are all eliminated.
The company is subjected to a hijacking hoax on April 21, 1999. While en route from Dushanbe to Moscow, a Tu-154B-2 with 136 passengers is diverted to Samara after a flight attendant finds a note in a toilet indicating that there is a “terrorist” aboard demanding to be flown to Tehran. On the ground at the central Russian city, a safe evacuation is made as armed troops surround the airliner. Soldiers find no hijackers and no explosives. After refueling, the plane continues its service.
Elsewhere, the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of the Samanids State is celebrated, along with the 75th anniversary of civil aviation in Tajikistan. The eastern gates at the new Dushanbe Airport terminal are completed and the second class of ATC controllers is graduated from the KACA. Scheduled, twice-weekly Tu-154M return service from Dushanbe and Tekirdag to Munich begins on August 24.
At the beginning of August 2000, the air connection between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is restored. As part of an effort by Russian and Iranian officials to enhance security along the border between northern Tajikistan’s Sodhdi region and northeastern Iran, arrangements are completed at the beginning of December for a weekly roundtrip flight between the two areas.
A new schedule is released with the beginning of the winter season on October 29. International Tu-154 return flights are made weekly from Dushanbe to Karachi, New Delhi and Sharjah and twice-weekly from Dushanbe to Munich and Karachi. Weekly roundtrips are also flown from Tekirdag to Munich.
Service is also maintained to points in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Tu-134As from Dushanbe fly weekly to and from Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and Almaty, while Tu-154s operate twice-weekly roundtrips to Moscow. Yak-40s are operated weekly from Dushanbe to Bishkek and twice-weekly to Almaty.
Twice-weekly Yak 40 return flights between Khujand and the Iranian city of Mashhad commence at Christmastime. It is hoped that the $260 return service will prove a boon for religious pilgrims wishing to visit Islamic sites.
TAJIKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES: Tajikistan (19951996). TIA is set up at Dushanbe in early 1995 to operate long-haul services to London (LHR). Revenue flights begin in February with a pair of Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1s formerly flown by TAP-Air Portugal, S. A. and obtained via Fortis Aviation, but only last a year.
TAKE AIR, LTD.: P. O. Box 393, Entebbe, Uganda; Phone 39 0333 2251578; Fax 39 06 30891796; Http://www. takeair. com; Year Founded 1994. Take Air is established at Entebbe in 1994 to provide passenger and cargo charters throughout Central Africa. Revenue operations begin and continue with a pair of Cessna 206 Stationaires.
World History
