Tajik Somon Air to be led by former head of Kazakh Air Astana
DUSHANBE. Oct 5 (Interfax) - Tajik private airline Somon Air has appointed Lloyd Paxton, a British citizen, its new CEO, the airline said in a press release Friday.
Paxton replaces Alisher Rustamov, "who has moved to a new post at Dushanbe International Airport," the release says.
Paxton headed Kazakhstan's Air Astana "at the dawn of its creation," the release said. "For Paxton this appointment is a return to the CIS, because he was formerly the president of Air Astana, where he laid the foundation for the success of that airline," Somon Air said.
The Tajik airline has also signed contracts with five other foreign top managers.
Paxton was CEO of Hungary's Malev in the mid-2000s.
Somon Air started operating in 2008. It has a fleet of six planes: two of its own Boeing-737-900ER and on lease it has two Boeing-737-800 and two Boeing-737-300. The company carries out scheduled flights from cities in Tajikistan to Germany (Frankfurt), United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Turkey (Istanbul), Saudi Arabia (Jeddah), China (Urumqi), Ukraine (Kyiv), Kazakhstan (Almaty), Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Orenburg, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Khanty Mansiysk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen, Sochi, Perm and Barnaul).
Three airlines operate in Tajikistan - state-owned TajikAir and private airlines Somon Air and EastAir.