The Tajik Transport Ministry says allowing the Russian Yamal Airlines flights would break the parity of Russia and Tajikistan in the number of flights operated between Moscow and Tajikistan.

The Tajik ministry notes that an agreement on air communication signed between Tajikistan and Russia in 1998 provides for the parity of the countries in the number of airlines allowed flying between Moscow and Tajikistan.

“Actually, Russian airlines account for 60 percent of flights operated between the countries,” the ministry said.

According to the statistical data from the Tajik ministry, Russian airlines have operated 496 flights to Tajikistan’s airports over the first two months of this year, while Tajik airline shave operated only 295 flights to Russia’s airports over the same two-month period. 

The Tajik Ministry of Transport notes that they proposed Yamal Airlines to operate twice-weekly service from the Zhukovsky Airport to the Tajik southern cities of Kulob and Qurghon Teppa but Yamal Airlines rejected the proposal to serve Kulob and Qurghon Teppa.      

“The Tajik side has compromised and proposed Yamal Airlines to operate twice-weekly service from the Zhukovsky Airport to Dushanbe and Khujand, but the Russian airlines rejected this proposal as well,” the Tajik ministry said.  

Yamal Airlines has made application for more flights — four weekly to Dushanbe and three to Khujand – but Tajikistan does not seem to think that was part of any deal.

Recall, the Russian Transport Ministry said on March 31 that as of April 3, Somon Air would no longer be permitted to conduct its four weekly flights from Dushanbe to Moscow and three weekly flights from the northern city of Khujand to Moscow.

The Russian ministry said the ban was a tit-for-tat response to Tajikistan’s refusal to allow Yamal Airlines to fly to Dushanbe from the Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow.  

As it had been reported earlier, Dushanbe in December banned Yamal Airlines flights to Tajikistan out of Zhukovsky Airport and Moscow suspended flights of Tajik private air carrier, Somon Air, to the Russian regions.  The ban included flights of the airline to all Russian cities, except Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Tajik and Russian authorities reached an agreement aimed at resolving a dispute that has prevented some civilian flights between their countries at a meeting of the Tajik-Russian commission for economic cooperation that too place in Dushanbe on January 27, 2017.  Somon Air was allowed to resume its flights to four Russian cities -- Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Ufa, and Orenburg -- beginning on February 3.

The history of this dispute dates back to early November last year.  The two countries faced the threat of suspension of flights in early November because of a dispute between Moscow and Dushanbe over the status of Russia’s Zhukovsky International Airport, which was officially opened in May 2016.

Dushanbe called for a revision of existing bilateral agreements on mutual air flights, saying that Zhukovsky is Moscow’s fourth international airport and that it has increased the number of flights from Moscow to Tajikistan.

The Russian civil aviation authorities insisted that Zhukovsky International Airport is not under Moscow’s authority but of the town of Ramenskoye.

Tajikistan that time agreed only to flights for Ural Airlines and Tajik Air from Zhukovsky Airport.