More than US $ 700 million have been invested by the government to implement the goals and projects of Turkmenistan’s national air carrier “Turkmen Airlines”. This was stated by the head of the Agency “Turkmen Airlines” Dovran Saburov, speaking on Thursday (4 May) at the international forum on transport and transit corridors held in Ashgabat.
He also announced the launch of regular passenger international flights to such destinations as Seoul (South Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Milan (Italy), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (Vietnam).
Saburov noted that, despite the instability around the world, in 2023, an overall increase in passenger traffic is expected by 168.7% compared to 2021, and by 136.3% compared to 2022. The expected growth in cargo transportation will be 155.4% compared to 2021, and 112.7% compared to last year.
This year, the airline’s fleet of cargo aircraft has been replenished with new Airbus A330-200 P2E. They have already successfully started cargo flights on Asia-Europe routes to such countries as South Korea, Vietnam, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, to European countries – Germany, France, the Czech Republic and it is planned to introduce new destinations – Milan (Italy), Tokyo (Japan) and Hong Kong (China).
In general, it is planned to increase cargo turnover to 60,000 tons per year.
Saburov stressed that more than US $3 billion has been invested to maintain the appropriate infrastructure level at Turkmenistan’s international airports. There are other programs of state support for the industry, he said.
Aeronautical maintenance of aircraft in the airspace of Turkmenistan is provided in accordance with international flight safety standards. Over the past two years, an additional 7 new international routes have been opened, which allow airlines to reduce the cost of flights, as well as the load on other air routes.
A simplified procedure for issuing permits to aircraft of foreign airlines for overflights and technical landings on the territory of Turkmenistan was also introduced, resulting in increase in overflights over the country’s territory.
According to Saburov, in 2023, the total growth of the air traffic flow is expected to be 224.5% compared to 2021 and 142.6% compared to 2022. ///nCa, 5 May 2023