Tajikistan has warned that dispute between Dushanbe and Moscow over Somon Air’s flights to Moscow may lead to the suspension of Russian airlines’ flights to Tajikistan from Moscow.

The Tajik Ministry of Transport reportedly sent a notification to the Russian side on April 4 saying that it would suspend flights of Russia’s Ural Airlines and UTair to Dushanbe from Moscow from April 6 unless Russian aviation authorities lift ban on Somon Air’s flights to Moscow.

“We have given the Russian side three days and if they do not lift a ban on Somon Air’s flights to Moscow from Dushanbe and Khujand, we will ban these two Russian air carriers (Ural Airlines and UTair) from operating flights to Tajikistan,” an official source at the Tajik Ministry of Transport told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.

The Tajik Ministry of Transport will duly respond by halting Ural Airlines’ four flights to Dushanbe and UTair’s three flights to Khujand.  

“We are still waiting for reply from the Russian side,” the source added.  

Recall, the Russian Transport Ministry said on March 31 that as of April 3, Tajikistan’s privately owned air carrier, Somon Air, would no longer be permitted to conduct its four weekly flights from Dushanbe to Moscow and three weekly flights from the northern city of Khujand to Moscow.

The Russian ministry said the ban was a tit-for-tat response to Tajikistan’s refusal to allow Russia’s Yamal Airlines to fly to Dushanbe from the Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow.