ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 29. Civil aviation in Kazakhstan shows significant growth in 2024, Trend reports, citing the government of the country.
Thus, passenger traffic in the first half of the year increased by 15 percent compared to the same period last year and reached 6.8 million people. At the same time, 11.3 million passengers were served at Kazakhstan airports, which is 21.5 percent more than in the same period last year.
This year, the fleet of Kazakhstan's airlines was replenished by five aircraft. The geography of international flights has expanded to 33 countries, with 132 routes and a frequency of 760 flights per week. New destinations include the UK, Vietnam, Germany, Georgia, Egypt, Qatar, China, Malaysia, the UAE, Thailand, and others.
Domestic air transportation is carried out by six airlines: Air Astana, FlyArystan, SCAT, Qazaq Air, Southern Sky, and Zhetysu. They operate flights on 53 routes with a frequency of 640 flights per week.
To ensure transport accessibility to socially significant destinations and the development of domestic tourism, 19 domestic air routes in 9 regions are subsidized in the amount of 6.6 billion tenge (about $14 million) - Turkestan, North Kazakhstan, Akmola, Abay, Zhetysu, Pavlodar, Zhambyl, East Kazakhstan, and Ulytau.
In addition, as part of the modernization of air transport infrastructure, the construction of a new passenger terminal at Almaty Airport was completed. Work is underway at the airports of Kyzylorda and Shymkent, financed by private funds. In May of this year, on behalf of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, reconstruction of the apron and taxiway at the Balkhash airport began. Also this year, reconstruction of the runway of the Pavlodar airport began, which will be completed in 2025.
As the government noted, these infrastructure projects will bring all the country's airports into compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and improve flight safety and quality of service. Experienced investors are being attracted to modernize airport infrastructure and develop the aviation industry.
At the same time, all restrictions on flights to the countries of the EU have been recently lifted for Kazakhstan and Kazakh carriers.
Moreover, this year a new T-916 route opened through the airspace of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which is an additional route for flights from Europe to Southeast Asia. Since the opening of the route, 19 flights have been carried out. The total length of the T-916 air corridor is more than 2,000 kilometers, of which 437 kilometers pass over Uzbekistan and the remaining 1,700 kilometers over Kazakhstan.