One of the hallmarks of American culture is that we love cheering for the underdog. We love supporting the Red Sox in their fight against the Curse of the Bambino. We love cheering for unpronounceable countries in the World Cup. And above all, we love supporting our hometown pilots against Big Airline.

It is in this context that I’d like to introduce you to a start-up company in Kyrgyzstan called TezJet.

TezJet is an airline here that flies domestically between Bishkek and Osh, Batken, and seasonally to a village called Tamchy in Issyk-Kul. “Tez” means “fast” or “quick” in Kyrgyz, and “Jet” means, well, jet. They have one old ex-Sabena British Aerospace BAe 146-200 that I enjoy calling bae, and love somewhat irrationally.

Now, for a country of less than 5 million people, you might be stunned to hear that competition between airlines here is pretty fierce; on the Osh-Bishkek route, the only route with daily service, there are 5 airlines competing against each other. If you can believe it, that’s more competition than the only two routes in the US with more than 4 carriers, LA-San Francisco, and LA-New York. Tickets for the 40 minute flight start at $15 each way, which is actually cheaper than the cost to travel by land in most cases. Talk about small margins.

Anyway, back to the TezJet – it’s got a single plane, so in an ode to the particles of English grammar, I take great glee in saying that I flew on THE TezJet – I also love their choice of equipment. The BAe 146 is a four-engined regional jet, and was developed in the 1980’s to offer quiet jet service in and out of city airports and airports requiring steep approaches, and in mountainous areas where having 4 engines made it safer in the event of problems. For many years, it was the only jet allowed to fly in and out of Aspen, Colorado, London City Airport, and a bunch of airports in Switzerland. That’s a combination that theoretically makes it well suited to Kyrgyzstan, and several airlines here operate them.

OK, so six abreast is a tight fit in that cabin. But every airline here does that! OK, fine, they only give you a cup of water, but hey, at least they give you that! And OK, fine, it’s all announced in Kyrgyz and Russian, but hey, those are the national languages! And OK, fine, it’s technically owned by Avia Traffic, but they pretend they’re their own thing!  And OK, after flying every single airline here, you generally can’t make out any differences between them whatsoever.

It’s certainly not Emirates First Class Suites with the inflight shower, but hey, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that us here in Southern Kyrgyzstan are the only Peace Corps Volunteers in the world who travel on a jet aircraft in order to get to their site! Not just any jet aircraft. The TezJet.