Merdan Ayazov, head of the State National Service “Turkmen Hova Yullari” (Turkmenistan Airlines), has paid a visit to Milan, Italy.

Talks on cooperation in air transport are planned to be held there, an official Turkmen source said today.

Negotiations are expected to end on January 17.

It was reported in August of 2012 that Turkmenistan Airlines envisage opening new cost effective flights from Turkmenbashi to Istanbul (Turkey), Moscow (Russia) and Aktau (Kazakhstan) and from the airport in Ashgabat to Urumqi (China), Phuket (Thailand), Novosibirsk (Russia), Milan ( Italy), Antalya (Turkey), Seoul (Republic of Korea) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) between 2012-2015.

Further modernization of Turkmenistan’s civil aviation fleet and an increase in the number of Boeing aircraft to 31 between 2016-2020 will open new flights from Turkmenbashi to St. Petersburg (Russia) and from Ashgabat to Jeddah and Medina (Saudi Arabia), Cochin and Ahmedabat (India), Samara (Russia), Hanoi (Vietnam), Vienna (Austria), Sofia (Bulgaria), Budapest (Hungary), Manama (Bahrain), New York (USA) and Toronto (Canada).

At present, besides domestic flights, Turkmenistan Airlines makes regular flights to Abu Dhabi, Amritsar, Almaty, Bangkok, Birmingham, Delhi, Dubai, Kiev, London, Moscow, Minsk, Beijing, Istanbul, Saint-Petersburg, Frankfurt and other world cities.

Turkmenistan became a full member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is a UN specialized agency that was formed in April 1993. At present, work on Turkmenistan’s accession to the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) is underway.