VZCZCXRO7852
RR RUEHLN RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1112/01 2731108
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301108Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0778
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0254
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1638

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001112 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD PGOV EAIR TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN - BOEING MAKES A DEAL WITH SOMON AIR 
 
REF: DUSHANBE 932 
 
DUSHANBE 00001112  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Boeing has reached an agreement with Somon 
Air (which is controlled by the President and his family), to 
provide Somon Air up to six 737 aircraft by 2012.  With the 
aircraft, Boeing will provide a comprehensive package of 
training for Somon pilots and maintenance staff and analytical 
support to develop Somon's routes and company structure.  Somon 
says it will expand its routes considerably with these aircraft. 
 Somon Air seems to be in the process of replacing state-owned 
Tajik Air, which would presumably go out of business when Somon 
Air becomes large enough to take over its traffic.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) Boeing Vice President for Middle East and Africa Marty 
Bentrott called on Ambassador September 30, accompanied by 
Jamshed Rahmonberdiev of Somon Capital, to discuss Boeing's new 
relationship with Somon Air.  Boeing will sell two 737s to 
Somon, and will deliver them in two years.  Somon will lease 
two, and possibly up to four more 737s by 2012.  Somon already 
operates two 737-800s.  Somon is entering into a comprehensive 
relationship with Boeing, which will include training of 
maintenance and flight crews, and assistance to develop routes 
and marketing relationships. 
 
 
 
AS ALWAYS IN TAJIKISTAN, BIG PLANS 
 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) Rahmonberdiev, of Somon Capital, said Somon air would 
expand its routes to Istanbul and Riga in the next month, later 
start service to several cities in Russia, and is negotiating 
with Chinese authorities to start service to Urumqi.  They are 
also considering flights to South Asia and Bangkok.  Expanded 
service within central Asia was less interesting to them, 
because of low demand and Tajik Air's present regulatory 
monopoly. 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Rahmonberdiev and Bentrott noted that the airplanes 
bought directly from Boeing would be financed and would cost 
less that the two 737s Somon bought last year from other owners. 
 Somon Capital paid cash for those two planes, did not do its 
homework, and found itself with planes that needed expensive and 
time consuming reconfigurations.  They also lacked technical 
support, forcing Somon to engage Turkish Air in an expensive 
support contract. 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Bentrott said that a Boeing representative would likely 
come to live in Dushanbe closer to the delivery date to ease 
communications between Somon and Boeing.  Next year Somon would 
send about 60 pilots and technicians to Seattle for training on 
the 737.  In the near term, Somon Capital will visit Washington, 
D.C. and Seattle in late October and will want to meet with 
EximBank to discuss possible support from EximBank for this deal. 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) No one from Somon Air itself came to the meeting. 
Somon Air is owned by OrionBank, controlled by the President and 
run by his brother-in-law.  Somon Capital, half-owned by 
OrionBank, is contracted to handle all financial dealing for new 
aircraft for Somon Air, while the air company only operates the 
aircraft.  Rahmonberdiev, the CEO of Somon Capital, was 
previously the embassy's commercial FSN and attended secondary 
school in the United States under the FLEX program.  Somon Air's 
management comes with long experience at Tajik Air and is 
reportedly unfamiliar with western business practices. 
 
 
 
COMMENT: SLIGHTLY LESS STUPID, AS CORRUPT AS EVER 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Somon Air has been a comedy of errors, reflective of 
political interference and the slavish need, which permeates 
Tajik business and government, to instantly and unquestioningly 
gratify every presidential whim.  Last year Somon Air hastily 
bought two aircraft, one new and the other barely used, to 
satisfy a political priority to establish a private airline. 
Thinking about aircraft internal configuration, engine software, 
training, and maintenance all came later.  Predictably the 
 
DUSHANBE 00001112  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
aircraft proved more expensive and difficult to operate than 
foreseen.  Somon had to turn to Turkish Air to fly and maintain 
them.  They seem now to be trying the old fashioned way, working 
with Boeing to develop a plan and the planes and people to carry 
out that plan.  The scale of Somon's planned expansion indicates 
that as in Kazakhstan, the new "private" airline will supplant 
the existing state carrier, which will presumably then go 
bankrupt.  Even in these economically difficult times, finding 
the money for all this seems not to be a problem.  The President 
and his close associates control Somon Air but, as Rahmonberdiev 
has told us, the money to buy the airplanes comes from the 
financially opaque and ostensibly state-owned Tajik Aluminum 
Company.  End Comment. 
GROSS