Tajik Air and Dushanbe Airport separated once again

Photo by Tajik Air

The government of Tajikistan has made the decision to break the Tajikistan Aviation Company, the holding structure that merged the country’s national carrier Tajik Air with Dushanbe Airport, into separate airline and airport entities.

The airport and its base airline have a long history of being merged into one company and separated into two. Its most recent merger chapter began in the summer of 2014 and was reportedly completed one year later. It was done under the motto of strengthening the airline’s position on the local market and placing it in a more competitive position against other CIS carriers.

However, the two companies continued operating as separate businesses, because “the appropriate documents were not finalized,” a spokesperson for Tajik Air explained to Russian Aviation Insider. Both companies were listed in Tajikistan’s national transport register as separate organizations, so the current government decision simply underlines the existing status quo, the airline’s representative commented. Dushanbe Airport made no comments to clarify the situation.

After the holding was officially disintegrated, the top-management of the two companies was reshuffled. Khairullo Rakhimov was appointed general director of Tajik Air, and Ismatullo Abdullozoda, head of the airport.

Former leader of Tajikistan Aviation Company Rustam Khalikov said that the issue of creating a joint-stock company that would unite Tajik Air and Dushanbe Airport is “still on the table,” Tajikistan’s national newswire Hovar reports. It is still being considered because it requires creating a “single organizational system” and developing regulating documents.

The airline and the airport have already operated as a single company until 2008, when the company was disintegrated as a result of “violating the antitrust regulations.” The separation caused detriment to Tajik Air’s financial results. Because of this, the airline received considerable privileges from its base airport to help it cut operation costs.