DUSHANBE, January 20, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, plans to fully renew its fleet within the next few years, the Tajik Air director for commerce and international cooperation, Ismoil Ghafforov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 19.

According to him, Tajik Air is currently conducting negotiations with partners on wet leasing its Soviet-era aircraft that have not yet outlived their service life.

“Besides, we are going to offer for sale our planes that are held in long term storage,” Tajik Air official said.

The Tajik Air fleet now includes 36 aircraft and only 14 of them are in service.  The remaining aircraft have been put into long term storage; among them are TU-134 and Yak-40, Ghafforov noted.  Some of them will probable be sold for spare parts.

The Tajik Air fleet now includes one Boeing 757-200; two Boeing 737-500s; on Boeing 737-300; two TU-154Ms; two AN-28s; one AN-24; one Yak-40; one AN-26 and three helicopters Mi-8MTV.

Besides, Tajik national air carrier has acquired two MA-60s from China''s Xi''an Aircraft Industrial Corporation.  The first of those two MA-60s landed at the Dushanbe airport on December 23 and the second one is expected to arrive in Tajikistan in spring 2012.  MA-60 has become the first new aircraft acquired by Tajik Air over the years of independence.

Tajik Air (Tajikistan Airlines) is the national airline of Tajikistan.  The airline has its main hub at the Dushanbe airport, and it retains a secondary focus point at the Khujand airport.

The company started operations on September 3, 1924 as Tajik Aviation. Its first route was Bukhara to Dushanbe, served by Junkers F.13 aircraft.  It is the sixth oldest airline still in operation.

Until 2008, Tajik Air had an absolute monopoly in Tajikistan’s air transport, owning all planes, airports, and airport and flight services.  As a result of restructuring, Tajik Air was split up into several separate companies.

Tajik Air now serves the following destinations: China (Urumqi); Iran (Tehran); Kazakhstan (Almaty); Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek); Russia (Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg, Samara, Sochi, Surgut, and Yekaterinburg); Tajikistan (Khorog and Khujand); and United Arab Emirates (Sharjah).