February 1–15 Central Asian Commercial Aviation News Brief
Aiming to bolster transport accessibility of regions and improve air services between nation’s cities, Kazakhstan will subsidize 24 routes this year, the Civil Aviation Committee of the Central Asian republic reported.
The rights to serve these socially important routes were given on a competitive basis to three airlines: SCAT Airlines, Qazaq Air and Southern Sky, which have in their fleet aircraft suitable for operations on regional, fin routes.
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2024 passenger traffic of the Manshuk Mametova Uralsk International Airport (IATA code: URA, Kazakhstan) increased by 23% year-on-year and exceeded 540,000 passengers.
This is highest number UAR reached in 55 years, the airport said in a statement.
The lion's share of traffic (89%) provided by domestic travel – exceeding 480,000, with some 60,000 passengers flew internationally.
Flights are operated to 10 destinations, including four international ones.
Top two destinations in 2024 were, traditionally, Astana and Almaty. The route to neighboring Atyrau is also popular.
Antalya, Türkiye is the hit among international destinations.
In February 2023, the Russia-based Airports of Regions became the co-owner of Oral International Airport LLP, the company which operates Uralsk International Airport.
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Uzbekistan’s first privately held airline, Qanot Sharq (IATA code: HH), maintained its status as the Central Asian country’s second largest carrier in 2024, behind the state-owned Uzbekistan Airways.
As Qanot Sharq revealed to CentralAsia+ Aero, the airline transported 601,400 passengers last year, operating more than 4,000 flights.
The average passenger seat load factor reached 85%, surpassing that of the national carrier. According to a company representative, nearly all flights were international.
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The Civil Aviation Agency of Uzbekistan (Uzaviation) announced today that it has issued permits for scheduled flights to two low-cost carriers from Southeast Asia: AirAsia X (Malaysia) and T'way Air (South Korea).
Air Asia X was granted the rights to fly on the Kuala Lumpur-Tashkent route using Airbus A330 widebody. Southeast Asia's largest budget carrier opened up Central Asia by launching flights from Kuala Lumpur to Almaty (Kazakhstan) in March 2024.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both hope that AirAsia X will eventually will eventually choose one of its airports to create a virtual hub there to perform flights using fifth freedom of air - to Turkey and European cities.
Korea’s T'way Air has received permission to fly the Seoul-Tashkent route with an Airbus A330.
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Privately-run Mongolian carrier Hunnu Air (IATA code: MR) plans to launch regular flights from Ulaanbaatar to Tashkent, Uzbekistan this year.
The news was revealed during airlines’ January 28 fleet expansion announcement. Hunnu has signed a lease agreement for two Embraer E195-E2s. The jets will be delivered directly from the manufacturer in April and October of 2025.
The Central Asian market is not new one for Hunnu Air though – it already operates schedule service from the Mongolian capital to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and during 2022-2023 served the Ulaanbaatar-Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan route.
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Nursultan Nazarbayev Astana International Airport (NQZ) revealed slightly more detailed operating results for 2024, which show that not only passenger traffic (both domestic and international) has increased, but also cargo traffic has grown significantly.
Future plans for the Kazakh capital’s airport include the construction of a new runway and terminal.
Last year, the second largest airport in the Central Asian republic saw its passenger traffic grown to 8.315 million passengers, up 11% over prior year.
5.668 mln passengers were carried domestically (+9%), with 2.647 mln (+16%) served on international lines.
Cargo is becoming an increasingly important part of the airport's activities. Last year the airport handled 12,470 tons of cargo and mail (+39% year-on-year), with international air freight grown by 78%, which, according to the airport, indicates the increasing role of Astana in global logistics chains.
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Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) served a record number of passengers in 2024 – 4.04 million, according to the national carrier's president, Sami Rzayev, representing an impressive 38.7% jump over 2023.
Comparing last year's results with pre-Covid 2019, a kind of benchmark year for the industry, the head of one of the largest airlines in the Caspian and Central Asian region noted that passenger traffic grew by almost half.
The number of flights performed increased by 43% to the pre-crisis value, exceeding 17,000.
The Baku-hubbed airline now operates flights to 63 destinations, 34% more than before the pandemic.
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Tajikistan’s national carrier, Somon Air, transported over 1 million passengers in 2024, reported the local media citing the Central Asian country’s Civil Aviation Agency.
Passenger traffic grew by 27.7% compared to the previous year.
A total of 112,000 passengers were carried on domestic flights, while 894,000 traveled on internationally.
Russia remained the Dushanbe-based carrier’s primary market, accounting for 51% of its passenger flow in 2024.
Throughout the year, the airline commenced 3,313 scheduled flights, 20.3% up over prior year. Cargo traffic increased by 41%, reaching 1,451 tons of freight and 10.5 tons of mail.
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As expected, a strategic master plan for the development of Kazakhstan's civil aviation industry until 2050 is to be developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The country expects that it will contribute to sustainable development, modernization and efficient operation of its air transport sector, helping to implement national tasks to develop transit and transport potential and turn Kazakhstan into the largest regional aviation hub.
The corresponding document was signed between the Republic’s Ministry of Transport and ICAO during the Global Implementation Support Symposium (GISS-2025) held in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
The master plan will allow to develop a comprehensive strategy and algorithm for further planning of the industry. It will include sections on the development of airports, air navigation, airlines, improvement of flight safety and aviation security, accessibility and liberalization of air transport, etc., the Ministry of Transport said.
Kazakhstan claims to be the first country in Central Asia and wider CIS to establish strategic cooperation with ICAO.
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Uzbekistan Airways will resume regular services from Tashkent to Madrid, starting April 7. The flights between capitals of Uzbekistan and Spain will be operated once a week, on Mondays, using Boeing 787-8 widebody.
The flag carrier had already operated charters to Madrid in 2023, but scheduled services on the route it last provided? more than 10 years ago.
Last year, Spanish airlines World2Fly and Iberojet (https://t.me/centralasiaplusaero/1339) also carried out seasonal tourist charter services from Madrid to Tashkent and Urgench.
Madrid will become the longest European route for Uzbekistan Airways, with a flight time of eight hours.
In addition, the airline already operates regular flights to several European destinations, including Istanbul (Türkiye), Frankfurt, (Germany), London (United Kingdom), Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), Paris (France) and Riga (Latvia).
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The Ministry of Transport of Uzbekistan, in collaboration with Boeing, will conduct the Airline Planning Workshop, aiming to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of key aspects of the aviation business, including market trends and effective airline management strategies.
The program consists of eight modules that cover essential topics such as airline economics, fleet and route planning, financial analysis, sustainability, and other critical areas.
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SCAT Airlines, Kazakhstan’s second-largest carrier, will launch its first flight to the Schengen zone from its home airport in Shymkent.
Starting May 27, the airline will fly twice a week to Hungary’s capital, Budapest. The Boeing 737MAX-8 flight will take approximately five and a half hours.
Currently, the only European destination from Shymkent, Kazakhstan’s third-largest city by population, is Istanbul, Turkey, which is not part of the Schengen zone.
SCAT already flies to the Schengen zone, with a route to Prague (Czech Republic), but only from the capital’s airport in Astana. The airline will double number of flights on this route in late May.
Also, SCAT mulls a launch of Astana – Vienna services some time during coming Summer navigation.