Somon Air

If you want to get an airline from Central Asia in front of your lens in Germany, you don’t get many opportunities. Somon Air is one of them: the private airline from Tajikistan connects Dushanbe with Munich and is thus one of the more exotic guests on German aprons. The fleet is small and the rotation rare – which is exactly what makes the sighting interesting. Here you will learn how Somon Air is set up, which aircraft it uses and how to identify it reliably.

Somon Air at a glance

Somon Air is a private airline from Tajikistan headquartered in the capital, Dushanbe. The company was founded in 2007 and began flight operations on February 5, 2008 – with two Boeing 737s and flights to Moscow. That made it clear from the start where things were headed: Russia is Tajikistan’s most important air travel market because many people from the country work there and commute regularly between the two countries.

Alongside the state-owned Tajik Air, Somon Air is the country’s second major airline and today the far more visible one. It flies scheduled and charter services and also operates flights for the president and senior government officials. The hub is Dushanbe Airport (DYU), with Khujand in the north of the country as the second focus.

In the aviation world, Somon Air has established itself step by step: in 2009, the airline joined the IATA settlement system BSP, in 2013 the multilateral interline agreement and the IATA Clearing House followed, and since September 2017 Somon Air has been a full IATA member. Later, an in-house training center for personnel was added in Dushanbe.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code SZ: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board, ticket and schedule – the Munich flight runs, for example, as SZ 121.
• ICAO code SMR: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign SOMON AIR: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

A stumbling block for beginners: the IATA code SZ is not a country code and has nothing to do with Eswatini or Switzerland. IATA airline codes are pure airline identifiers and can be reassigned over the decades – in older databases, you should therefore always check which airline a code currently belongs to. How the code system works is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained.

The fleet: a small all-Boeing family

With nine aircraft, Somon Air is a manageable airline. The fleet consists exclusively of Boeing aircraft. According to fleet overviews (as of fall 2026), it looks like this:

Type	Number	Seats	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-800	4	189	The backbone of the fleet
Boeing 737-900ER	2	184 (16 business, 168 economy)	The longest 737 in the fleet, with an extra pair of exits behind the wing
Boeing 737 MAX 8	2	around 174	In service since July and September 2026 respectively, leased from DAE Capital
Boeing 787-8	1	VIP configuration	Used for the government, not a regular scheduled aircraft

The Boeing 737-800 is the most important type and handles a large part of the scheduled traffic to Russia and Central Asia. Two of them joined in August and September 2022. The Boeing 737-900ER is the stretched variant with extra range; Somon Air uses it with a small business cabin and a large economy cabin. The airline also used to operate older Classic-generation 737s, such as the 737-400, which have since been retired.

New are the two Boeing 737 MAX 8s. They carry the names of figures regarded as national greats in Tajikistan: the physician and scholar Abu Ali ibn Sino (known in the West as Avicenna) and the poet Rudaki. For spotters, such names on the nose are a nice detail that you can deliberately capture when photographing.

The Boeing 787-8 in VIP configuration has a special role. It does not fly in the regular scheduled network but for state visits and government trips. When it shows up, it is usually unannounced and event-driven – for example at summits.

Growth: the 2025 order

For a long time, Somon Air grew only slowly. Several expansion plans stayed on paper: a letter of intent for a Boeing 787-8 signed at the 2018 Dubai Airshow was never converted into a firm order, and the Embraer E190-E2 was also considered as a replacement for older 737s but not ordered. In November 2019, the airline also signed a letter of intent with Airbus.

The breakthrough came in 2025: Somon Air placed the largest order in its history – 14 aircraft, including Boeing 737-8s and the larger Boeing 787-9. The first two 737 MAX 8s have been here since July and September 2026; the 787-9s are still to come. With the long-haul type, the airline could for the first time serve destinations that cannot be reached from Dushanbe with the 737, or only with restrictions. Which routes the 787-9 will eventually fly is open – anyone following the airline is best off keeping an eye on the deliveries.

The manufacturer of all the aircraft is Boeing. For a small airline, the uniform fleet has clear advantages: pilots, maintenance and spare parts can be concentrated on one aircraft family.

The route network: Russia, Central Asia, the Gulf – and Munich

Somon Air’s network mirrors Tajikistan’s connections. According to the airline’s destination overview (as of October 2026), it looks roughly like this:

Region	Destinations (selection)
Russia	Moscow-Domodedovo, Moscow-Zhukovsky, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk
Central Asia	Almaty, Astana, Bishkek, Tashkent
Turkey and the Caucasus	Istanbul
Middle East and the Gulf	Dubai, Jeddah, Tehran
Asia	Delhi, Ürümqi
Western Europe	Munich
Domestic	Khujand

Russia is by far the most important market. Many Tajiks work there, and demand for flights between the two countries is correspondingly high. Somon Air used to serve more cities in Russia, including Irkutsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen and Krasnodar; several of them have since been discontinued. Kabul, Bukhara and Simferopol were also once on the schedule.

In Central Asia, Somon Air competes on individual routes with airlines such as Uzbekistan Airways, Air Astana and its low-cost subsidiary FlyArystan. To Istanbul and Dubai, it meets strong hub airlines such as Turkish Airlines and flydubai, which distribute passengers from Tajikistan onward to the world.

A special feature is the partnership with Asiana Airlines: Somon Air has a codeshare and interline agreement with the South Korean airline. The airline does not belong to an alliance, however.

Spotting Somon Air in Munich

Since June 2022, Somon Air has connected Dushanbe with Munich. The frequency has changed several times since then: at times there were two flights per week, partly with a stopover in Trabzon. Since August 2026, according to schedule data, the connection runs once a week on Saturday as SZ 121/122, nonstop with the 737 MAX 8, arriving early in the morning and departing again in the early evening. For spotters, that means exactly one landing and one takeoff per week. If you want the sighting, you have to plan deliberately.

A proven vantage point is the visitors’ hill at Munich Airport, from which you can watch movements on the apron and runways well. You will find more tips on spots, light and procedures in the plane spotting guide for Munich. How weekdays can shift over the course of the year is explained in the article on summer and winter schedules.

How to recognize Somon Air

Since Somon Air is rare in Central Europe, it is best to rely on several features at once:

• “Somon Air” titles on the fuselage – the clearest identifier.
• Registration with EY-: this is Tajikistan’s nationality mark. How registrations are structured in general is shown in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.
• Boeing 737 as the type: on scheduled services, Somon Air uses only variants of the 737.
• SZ and SMR: the flight number and ICAO code confirm the sighting on the tracker.

It gets interesting with the question of exactly which 737 is in front of you. The 737-900ER is visibly longer than the 737-800 and has an extra pair of exits behind the wing. You recognize the 737 MAX 8 by the larger engines with a serrated trailing edge on the nacelle and by the split-tip winglets. A detailed guide is in the article Telling Boeing 737 generations apart.

Common mix-ups

• Taking SZ for a country code – SZ is Somon Air’s IATA code, not Eswatini’s or Switzerland’s.
• Taking Somon Air for the state airline – Tajikistan’s state-owned airline is Tajik Air; Somon Air is private.
• Logging the VIP 787-8 as a scheduled aircraft – the 787-8 flies for the government, not in the regular network.
• Assuming Frankfurt is a regular destination – the only German destination in the current destination overview is Munich.
• Confusing the 737-900ER and 737-800 – watch the fuselage length and the exits behind the wing.
• Confusing EY- with other prefixes – EY- stands for Tajikistan; neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan (UK-) or Kyrgyzstan (EX-) use different marks.

If airlines like this appeal to you, take a look at the article Spotting rare aircraft. There you will find ideas on how to track down exotics beyond the usual network and low-cost carriers.

Conclusion

Somon Air is not an airline that happens to fly across your path. The private carrier from Dushanbe operates just a handful of Boeing 737s, supplemented by new 737 MAX 8s and a VIP 787-8 for the government. Its network is aimed mainly at Russia, Central Asia and the Gulf. For spotters in Germany, the weekly flight to Munich is the best chance – with some planning, a look at the tracker and a legible EY- registration in the photo, it becomes a real exotic for your collection.