DUSHANBE, October 19, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, has launched a new air route to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Dushanbe to Dubai.

An official source at Tajik Air says the first flight on this route will be operated on October 29 and Boeing 737-500 will be used to operate this flight.  A ticket for the flight will cost 200 euros. 

Tajik Air 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.

Tajik Air has its head office at Dushanbe International Airport in Dushanbe. The airline has its main hub at Dushanbe International Airport, and it retains a secondary focus point at Khujand''s Khujand International Airport.

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

It is to be noted that Tajik Air has joined other airlines in suspending flights to Tehran due to the devaluation of the Iranian national currency, the rial, which has lost some 30 percent of its value in the last several weeks.  It is not clear when the biweekly Dushanbe-Tehran flight will resume.