Russia's federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) has issued a permit to a charter airline Azur Air operate flights from the Russian city of Irkutsk to Khujand, Tajikistan’s second-largest city.  The flight will be conducted twice a week. 

In accordance with the order issued by Rosaviatsiya on December 3, 2020, the flight will be conducted twice a week.  However, it is not yet clear when the flights will commence.

“The decision on issuing this permit is not the basis or decision to resume flights to international destinations mentioned in Rosaviatsiya’s order of December 3, 2020 (No 1463-p).” 

The permit is the right of the airline, which it can use when resuming flights, says Russia’s aviation agency.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Agency of Tajikistan says they have not yet received any notification. 

Azur Air has not previously flown to Tajikistan before.

Recall, air traffic between Tajikistan and Russia has been suspended since March 20, 2020.  

Tajik authorities have suspended all international flights.  Tajikistan closed all its airports at midnight on March 19-20 due to the coronavirus concerns.  Only charters flights to repatriate Tajik nationals stranded in foreign countries due to the coronavirus crisis have been operated so far.

Currently, Tajikistan's Somoni Air conducts five charter flights per day to different Russian cities from Dushanbe.

In November, Tajik authorities allowed two Russian air carriers -- UTair and Ural Airlines -- to operate limited charter flights from Tajikistan to Moscow and six other Russian cities.

Ural Airlines conducts 11 weekly charter flights per week from to Russia from three Tajik cities (Dushanbe Khujand and Kulob).  It operates six charter flights from Dushanbe to Moscow (Zhukovsky Airport – once-weekly service on Sundays), Kazan (once-weekly service on Mondays), Krasnoyarsk (once-weekly service on Mondays), Samara (once-weekly service on Tuesdays), St Petersburg (once-weekly service on Tuesdays) and Ufa (once-weekly service on Mondays).  Besides, Ural Airlines operates four charter flights from Khujand to Moscow (Zhukovsky Airport – once-weekly service on Mondays), Krasnoyarsk (once-weekly service on Mondays), Samara (once-weekly service on Sundays) and St Petersburg (once-weekly service on Fridays).  It also operates once-weekly charter flights from Kulob to Moscow on Saturdays.  

Utair got permission to operate charter flights to Moscow from Dushanbe and to Surgut from Khujand.     

Azur Air, formerly Katekavia and stylized as azurair, is a charter airline and former regional airline in Russia.  Initially it was based out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport, the domestic airport serving Krasnoyarsk, and its destinations were all within the Krasnoyarsk Krai.  The airline started operations in 1995 and operates regional flights out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport.  The airline also operates charter services to Siberia and Yakutia. 

In 2015, Katekavia handed over its fleet to Turukhan Airlines.  Katekavia was rebranded as a leisure carrier and renamed Azur Air.

In February 2016, the airline received permit from Rosaviatsia to fly to international destinations on a regular basis.