BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 13. Kazakhstan's Arkalyk Airport has officially received the three-letter international IATA code AYK, allowing it to be integrated into global aviation information systems.
This was announced by the press service of Kazakhstan's Civil Aviation Committee on August 13.
The committee said the work to assign the International Air Transport Association (IATA) code was carried out as part of the reconstruction of Arkalyk Airport in accordance with an instruction from Kazakhstan's President.
The IATA officially assigned the airport the AYK code on August 12, 2026. The code had previously been used by Arkalyk Airport and has now been restored, according to the ministry.
“This code is unique and allows Arkalyk Airport to integrate into global booking and ticketing systems, flight schedules, and other global civil aviation information systems,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Arkalyk is located in southern Kostanay Region and serves as an important transport point for the remote part of northern Kazakhstan. The city was established in 1956 around bauxite deposits and is situated far from the regional center, making transport connectivity particularly important for its residents and surrounding settlements.
The airport, founded in 1966, stopped regular operations in 1992 and has remained largely inactive for more than three decades. Its reconstruction is now part of a broader effort to improve Arkalyk's connectivity, with planned routes linking the city with Astana, Almaty and Kostanay. The planned airport is designed to handle up to 70 passengers per hour.
Against this background, the restoration of the airport's IATA code is more than a technical change. IATA assigns unique three-letter location identifiers to airports and other locations involved in air transport, and these codes are used across reservation, scheduling, ticketing, baggage, cargo and travel-distribution systems. IATA says its location database covers about 12,000 locations worldwide and is updated daily. For Arkalyk, restoring the AYK identifier therefore gives the airport a standardized place in the commercial aviation system as Kazakhstan prepares to resume regular passenger services.
