Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Feb. 8 / Trend H. Hasanov /
The destinations of Turkmen national air carrier Turkmenistan Hava Yollari are being expanded. New routes are being developed to open flights from Ashgabat to Munich, Paris, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), as well as Milan and Novosibirsk, the newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported.
At present flights go to London and Moscow, Beijing and Istanbul, Frankfurt and Birmingham, Bangkok and New Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Amritsar, Minsk and Almaty, Kiev and St. Petersburg and Dubai.
The type of aircraft in service are as follows; Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-800, Boeing-737-700, Boeing-757-200, Boeing 767-300, Bae-125-1000, CL-605 Challenger are all used on international flights with the Boeing-717-200 on domestic routes.
The Challenger 870 aircraft will be delivered this year. A contract was also signed to buy two Boeing 737-800 aircraft which will begin operating in 2013.
According to the information, the Boeing-777-200 LR type will operate with Turkmen Airlines in the first quarter of 2013.
These aircraft can accommodate up to 300 passengers and have a flight range from 9100 to 17, 500 kilometres. This is a wide airliner capable of making the longest passenger flights in the world.
New AVI -101 helicopters will be delivered this year. The civil aviation fleet will increase from 27 to 43 modern aircraft by 2030. Additional runways will soon be built at Turkmenabat and Dashoguz city airports soon.
Turkmen aviators transported about 30 million passengers and about 400,000 tons of cargo and mail on domestic and international flights since the country's independence.
About 1.8-1.9 million passengers are annually transported on international and domestic airlines.
The journey span of international airlines increases. In 1992 it was 27,000 kilometres. In 2011 planes crossed the 60,000 kilometre mark. Significant growth rates were achieved on other indices, including income and expenses.
In 2011, about $250 million in total was invested in the development of the country's civil aviation.