DUSHANBE, December 25, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, has acquired two MA-60s from China''s Xi''an Aircraft Industrial Corporation.

The first of those two MA-60s landed at the Dushanbe airport on December 23 and the second one is expected to arrive in Tajikistan in spring 2012.

The aircraft have been acquired due to loan taken from China’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank.  The loan is repayable in twelve years.

The MA-60 will be used to operate flights on domestic routes as well as on the routes from Dushanbe to Mashhad (Iran); Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan).

The Xian MA60 is a turboprop-powered airliner made by China''s Xi''an Aircraft Industrial Corporation under the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I).  The MA60 is a stretched version of the Xian Y7-200A, which was produced based on Soviet aircraft Antonov An-24 to operate in rugged conditions with limited ground support and has short take-off and landing (STOL) capability.  The airplane received its type certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in June 2000.  The first aircraft was delivered to Sichuan Airlines in August 2000.  

As of October 2006, XAC has received over 90 MA60 orders. The factory had delivered 23 MA60s by the end of 2006, and expects to deliver an additional 165 units by the end of 2016.

Tajik Air (Tajikistan Airlines) is the national airline of Tajikistan.  The airline has its main hub at the Dushanbe airport, and it retains a secondary focus point at the Khujand airport.

The company started operations on September 3, 1924 as Tajik Aviation. Its first route was Bukhara to Dushanbe, served by Junkers F-13 aircraft.  It is the sixth oldest airline still in operation.

Tajik Air now serves the following destinations: China (Urumqi); Iran (Tehran, Mashhad); Kazakhstan (Almaty); Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek); Russia (Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg, Samara, Sochi, Surgut, and Yekaterinburg); Tajikistan (Khorog and Khujand); and United Arab Emirates (Sharjah).

The Tajik Air fleet now includes 34 aircraft; of them, eleven are in service: one Boeing 757-200; two Boeing 737-500s; two TU-154Ms; two AN-28s; one AN-24; one Yak-40; and two helicopters Mi-8MTV.