ASHGABAT (Dovlet Habarlary) — Turkmenistan plans to establish regular air service with Tajikistan in the near future, the Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary state news service reported. The flights will be carried out under the bilateral agreements, according to the report.

The new Ashgabat International Airport

In 2012, Polimeks Construction, one of Turkey’s biggest contractors, won the tender for the construction of Ashgabat International Airport,valued at the time to $2.253 bln. The construction of the new airport, whose design was inspired by the national symbols and values of Turkmenistan, begun in January 2013 and was planned to be completed in 2016. The new airport, built on an enclosed area of 350,000 m², will receive 14 mln passengers per year.

A Turkmen delegation took off to Dushanbe where it will hold talks in the framework of the agreements on expanding bilateral cooperation.

Officials of Turkmenistan national carrier and Turkmenistan Airline OJSC will discuss with Tajik counterparts the readiness of aviation units to jointly work on establishing regular air service between the capitals of the two country.

The Turkmen government opened an international tender in 2012 for the construction of a new international airport in Ashgabat, to be named Oguz Han. Polimeks, a Turkish construction company active in Turkmenistan since the late-1990s, was declared as the winner of the tender. The new airport was opened on 17 September 2016 by the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.

The project costed $2.3 bln and featured a highly unusual terminal design featuring a Turkmen bird. The new airport is able to serve 14 mln passengers per year. It has the capacity to handle 1,600 passengers per hour. The airport has a closed-area of 350,000 m² and include a passenger terminal, VIP terminal, cargo terminal with a capacity to handle 200,000 tonnes of freight per year, a new air traffic control tower (ATCT), a maintenance hangar for three narrow-body aircraft, new fuelling stations, catering, fire brigade, flight simulation, repair and maintenance buildings, parking space for 3.000 cars, a civil aviation school as well as a medical centre. The airport has also a new 3,800m long runway to serve wide-body, double-deck jet airliners such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.