Tajikistan’s privately owned air carrier Somon Air is expected to operate 52 more charter flights to repatriate Tajik national stuck in Russia due to the coronavirus crisis.

The charter flights will be operated from various cities of Russia to Tajikistan in line with the decision of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on COVID-19 Response.

All these flights will be operated by Somon Air, the Tajik Foreign Ministry said, noting that the flights will be operated as agreed with the Russian authorities.  

Persons wanting to travel from Russia to Tajikistan by these charter flights will have to show a negative coronavirus test completed within 96 hours (four days) before departure.  Children under 3 years old are exempted from producing such a certificate

Lists of citizens on the charter flights are made by special commissions set up at Tajikistan’s Embassy in Moscow and its General Consulates in the Russian cities. 

Somon Air will operate these charter flights from the Russian cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Surgut, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Sochi, Irkutsk and Krasnodar to Dushanbe. 

Somon Air is the first private 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.

Recall, Tajik authorities have suspended all international flights.  Tajikistan closed all its airports at midnight on March 19-20 due to the coronavirus concerns.  Only charters flights to repatriate Tajik nationals stranded in foreign countries due to the coronavirus crisis have been operated so far.