Tajik flag air carrier ordered to pay US$20 million to Lithuania’s Skyroad Leasing

Bakhtiyor Naimzoda, the Judge at the High Economic Court of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 22 that the High Economic Court has upheld Dushanbe Economic Court verdict’s which ordered Tajik Air in 2018 to pay an outstanding debt of 20 million U.S. dollars. 

Skyroad Leasing, which was known as AviaAM B03 until 2014, had dry-leased two Boeing aircraft to the Tajik flag carrier from 2009, but the partners' paths diverged due to a dispute over alleged outstanding leasing payments and interest.

Recall, Tajik civil aviation authorities had earlier accused Zafar Khafizov, the ex-head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan, of losing the case.

Zafar Khafizov, a lawyer authorized to represent the airline and Tajikistan's Ministry of Transport during the 2018 court case, failed to participate in the hearings, leading to a fiasco in court.  

The only state-owned aviation company in Tajikistan, Tajik Air has been experiencing economic difficulties for years.  

In early June, Russia's federal air transport regulator (Rosaviatsia) filed a lawsuit in the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding the recovery of a debt of around USD555,000 from Tajik Air for unpaid air navigation services, RIA Novosti reported at the time.