On Wednesday April 22, Somon Air carried out a charter flight to Italy to carry 792,000 face masks to Verona, a reliable source told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

“A Sughd-based Javoni Limited Liability Company (LLC) and Italy’s SATM Ltd (phonetically spelled) had earlier reached an agreement on production and delivery of 11 million face masks to Italy.  The masks will be delivered to Italy in stages,” the source said.   

According to him, the plane has flown to Italy in transit via Turkey.  The source noted that he does not know whether the plane will take Tajik citizens stranded in Turkey or not.    

210 Tajik have reportedly been stuck in Turkey and more than 90 Tajik nationals have reportedly been stuck in India.  The authorities say the issue is being discussed, but it is not known when the flights will be.

Somon Air is the first privately-owned airline in Tajikistan with an office headquartered in Dushanbe.  The airline operations are based at Dushanbe International Airport.  The airline started operating on February 5, 2008 with regular flights to Moscow and Dubai.

Somon Air also serves as the official carrier of President of the Republic of Tajikistan and other Tajikistan high-ranking officials.

To date, Somon Air has successfully operated flights from Tajikistan to Germany, the UAE, Turkey, China, India, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The airline fleet consists of Boeing 737-300, -800 and -900 aircraft and Airbus H125 helicopter.