Tag Archives: aviation

Kazakhstan’s Air Astana delays Iran flight

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier Air Astana said it has postponed the launch of its new route to Iran by a month. The company did not give an explanation on why it had delayed the launch of the route, which had been a much heralded link to Iran. Kazakhstan has been keen to welcome Iran back into the international community since the lifting of most sanctions earlier this year. Flights linking Almaty and Tehran should now start on June 30.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Tajik Air to fly to Beijing

APRIL 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s flagship carrier Tajik Air will start its Dushanbe-Beijing connection on May 2, a move that could boost trade ties with China. The direct flight will operate every Monday. Previously, Urumqi, in the Xinjiang region, was Tajik Air’s only Chinese destination.

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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Tajikistan’s Somon Air to fly to Af-Pak

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somon Air, the only private carrier in Tajikistan, said it will open two new routes to Afghanistan and Pakistan, another indicator of how Central and South Asia are moving closer together. Somon Air will fly once a week to Kabul and twice a week to Lahore, in western Pakistan. The company also said it is exploring the possibility of opening a new flight to Tehran.

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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Aeroflot launches flights to Uzbek capital

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot said it is introducing an eight weekly link to Tashkent, a modification of its earlier summer schedule. The new flights will start on June 2, every Thursday from Moscow Sheremetyevo.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Uzbekistan Airways starts flights to Tokyo

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned airline Uzbekistan Airways said it started a new weekly service between Tashkent and Tokyo Narita. The company also said the frequency will double to two flights per week from the end of March. Relations between Uzbekistan and Japan have been improving and Japanese businesses are investing heavily in Uzbekistan’s energy and mining sectors.

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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Tajik Air buys numbers of planes from Airbus

MARCH 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to boost the status of state- owned Tajik Air, Tajikistan’s deputy PM Azim Ibrohim said that the government had bought a number of planes from Europe’s Airbus. State-owned Tajik Air and privately-owned Somon Air are the only two airlines in the country and both use Boeing-made aircrafts. Countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been using airlines to promote their national brands.

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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Silk Way West in Azerbaijan signs agreement with Malaysian Cargo

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Silk Way West Airlines, a private freight air carrier based in Azerbaijan, signed an agreement with Malaysia Airlines Cargo that will allow them to mutually use their aircraft fleet. Earlier in January, Silk Way West Airlines signed an agreement with the Komatsu airport in Japan to open a new route. The Silk Way Group, a large industrial conglomerate, owns Silk Way West Airlines.

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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Air Astana to launch flights to NYC

MARCH 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier Air Astana said it is exploring opening a route to the US by the beginning of 2017. Air Astana, which is half owned by the Kazakh government and half by BAE Systems, is also looking to open flights to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

BA cuts UK- Azerbaijan route as demand falls

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – British Airways will cut its route to Baku from April 29 because it has become unprofitable, another indication of the severity of the economic downturn that has hit Central Asia and the South Caucasus in general and Azerbaijan in particular.

Baku is BP’s major regional hub and British Airways had been flying six times a week direct to Baku from Heathrow. Its decision to cut the route, which has been serviced by a British airline since 1995, further cuts the region off from Europe.

Over the past three years, British Airways has cut routes to Bishkek, Tbilisi and Almaty. By stopping flights to Baku it pulls back from the region altogether.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

British Airways cuts flight to Azerbaijani capital, its final link with region

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – British Airways will cut a 21-year-old route when it drops its six-times-a- week service to Baku from London.

It said that poor demand, linked to the sharp economic downturn that has engulfed the region in the past 18 months, has made the route unprofitable.

“We have taken the decision to suspend the London Heathrow to Baku route as it is no longer commercially viable,” a statement read.

“The final service from Heathrow will be on April 29, 2016 and the final service departing Baku will be on the same day.”

The London-Baku route is the last remaining BA flight into Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

It has slowly dropped the region’s capitals as destinations.

Yerevan and Bishkek were dropped in 2012, Tbilisi in 2013 and Almaty in 2014.

But symbolically, dropping Baku is more serious than any of the others. Baku is the centre of BP’s operations in the region which has always driven demand.

It was also a route that BA first flew in 1995, four years after the break up of the Soviet Union. It handed over to British Mediterranean Airways in 2003 before BMI took it on in 2007. BA then reclaimed the route in 2012.

As BA has dropped routes to Central Asia and the South Caucasus, though, regional airlines have stepped in. Air Astana now boasts it is the only airline that flies directly between London and Almaty/Astana.

Soon, Azerbaijan Airlines will be able to give the same boast on flights to Baku.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)