The Bishkek Interdistrict Court has upheld an earlier ruling by a lower instance court ordering Air Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) to repay KGS2.9 million soms (USD41,500) in overdue tax, Tazabek has reported.
The claim against the airline was previously filed by the country's tax authority (Gosudarstvennaya Narodnaya Sluzhba - UGNS).
While the amount of the claim is low, the ruling is likely to exacerbate Air Kyrgyzstan's financial and operational woes. The state-owned carrier has been dormant since October 2017 when its only active B737-500, EX-37501 (msn 26419), suffered a bird strike and was rendered inoperative. Aside from its scheduled operations, it had also offered ACMI/charter services with its B737-300, EX-37013 (msn 24699). Radarbox24 ADS-B data shows that the latter aircraft was last active in February 2019 on a wet-lease to Saha Airlines (IRZ, Tehran Mehrabad).
In March, the Kyrgyz government took decisions aimed at relaunching the carrier. State-owned banks will provide it with loans backed by the state to add two medium-haul aircraft. Concrete measures are yet to be implemented.
