DUSHANBE, April 23, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Director general of Tajik state air company, Tajik Air, Alimurod Mahmadaliyev told a news conference in Dushanbe on April 22 that regular flights between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be resumed after signing of a government-to-government agreement on aerial communication.

According to him, the Tajik side has already endorsed the agreement, which is currently under consideration in Uzbekistan.  “If the Uzbek side approves the document, we are ready to reopen flights to Uzbekistan and not only to Tashkent,” the director general said.

Mahmadaliyev noted that negotiations on reopening flights between Dushanbe and Tashkent were conducted in Tashkent on March 4.  “The sides reached an agreement on opening of aerial communication between the two countries and purchase of a consignment of small aircraft from Uzbekistan,” said he, “Besides, we reached an agreement on repairing our planes in Uzbekistan, which has hangar for repairing Boeings and in case of necessity, we may send our planes for repairing there.”

We will recall that flights between Dushanbe and Tashkent ended in 1992.  The two countries agreed in 2000 to resume flights between Dushanbe and Tashkent, but Uzbekistan canceled the agreement after one flight.