Somon Air of Tajikistan has appointed Lloyd Paxton as it’s new Chief Executive, replacing Alisher Rustamov who leaves the airline for a new role at Dushanbe International Airport. For Paxton this is a return to the CIS having previously been the President of Air Astana in Kazakhstan when it commenced operations, where he laid the foundations for what has become a very successful CIS airline.

Following his tenure at Air Astana, he later briefly held the position of Chief Executive at Malev in Hungary. At Somon Air, Paxton will be responsible for changing and developing all aspects of the airline so as to achieve international standards throughout it’s operations and will be supported by five other expatriate directors who are yet to be appointed. Somon Air presently operates two Boeing 737-900, two Boeing 737-800 and two Boeing 737-300 aircraft and serves major cities in the CIS besides, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Dubai and Urumqi.