Tajikistan and China plan to resume direct flights between Dushanbe and Beijing. This issue was discussed on March 11 during a meeting between the head of Tajikistan’s Civil Aviation Agency, Khabibullo Nazarzoda, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Tajikistan, Ji Shumin, Asiaplus.tj reports.
During the negotiations, the parties discussed expanding routes and launching new direct flights aimed at strengthening economic and tourism ties between the two countries, according to Tajikistan’s Civil Aviation Agency.
Ji Shumin noted that China also plans to introduce direct flights to Tajikistan from other Chinese cities to boost tourism between the two nations.
The Dushanbe-Beijing flight was initially launched in 2016, operating once a week on Mondays using Boeing 757 aircraft. The flight duration was 5 hours and 30 minutes.
However, due to low passenger demand, the flights had to be temporarily canceled three months after the launch. They resumed in 2017 but were later suspended again.
In early 2020, direct air travel between Tajikistan and China was suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the declaration of the pandemic.
Flights later resumed only with Urumqi but not with Beijing, despite Ziyodullo Sharipov, head of the Civil Aviation Regulation Department of Tajikistan’s Civil Aviation Agency, stating in 2022 that Tajik and Chinese aviation authorities had agreed to restore direct flights to Beijing starting June 23, 2022.
For a long time, flights between Tajikistan and China operated via the Dushanbe-Urumqi route.
In 2024, a new flight route from Khujand to Kashgar was launched. This flight is operated by the Chinese airline Chandu Airlines.
The new Kashgar-Khujand-Kashgar route operates once a week, flying from Khujand to Kashi-Laining International Airport in Kashgar, located in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The flight duration is 1.5 hours.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
March 12, 2025