June 16–30 Central Asian Commercial Aviation News Brief
Two Central Asian airlines launched flights to Seoul, South Korea.?
Kazakhstan's flag carrier Air Astana resumed non-stop flights between Astana and Seoul on June 15, once again connecting the capitals of Kazakhstan and South Korea by direct flights. Flights between the cities were first launched in 2015, but were temporarily suspended due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, private Uzbek carrier Qanot Sharq started flights from Tashkent to Seoul on June 16. The non-stop service between the capitals of Uzbekistan and South Korea will be operated twice a week on Airbus A321neo narrowbody, and will partially compensate for the withdrawal of South Korean national carrier Korean Air, which stop flying on route on March 1.
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To support its fleet expansion and modernization, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), one of the largest carriers in the Caspian and Central Asian region, agreed to lease two Airbus A320neo aircraft from CDB Aviation.
Azerbaijan’s national air carrier became a new customer for a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co.
The A320-251N aircraft are expected to be delivered in June and July 2025 and will support the airline’s fleet renewal strategy targeted to equip the carrier with the modern and fuel-efficient aircraft.
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Uzbekistan’s Silk Avia has opened leisure flights to Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan), starting June 16.
Tashkent (TAS)-Issyk-Kul (IKU) became the first international regular route for the regional airline, which is part of Uzbekistan Airways group.
The two-hour flights will be operated three times a week, with plans to increase the frequency to daily from July.
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Chinese low-cost carrier Loong Air (IATA code - GJ) has started operating flights between Xi'an (China) and Samarkand (Uzbekistan) on June 16, making it its sixth destination in Central Asia.
The privately-run airline is developing its international network in the regions covered by the “One Belt, One Road” strategic initiative.
Flights on the route will be operated twice a week, using Airbus A320 narrowbody with a single-class layout, said Air Marakanda, the operator of Samarkand airport.
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In accordance with Kazakhstan's 2030 development strategy, the airports of Astana, Almaty, Aktobe and Shymkent are to become regional hubs, said the country's Transport Minister Marat Karabayev at the opening of the #TIACA Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub conference in Astana today.
He explained that for this purpose they should get developed infrastructure for passenger and cargo service, as well as special customs zones, CentralAsia+Aero correspondent reports.
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Karaganda airport will have its own cargo airline, the Kazakh airport's shareholder Yerlan Ospanov confirmed to CentralAsia+ Aero today at the #TIACA Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub conference in Astana.
According to Ospanov, the new airline, Altair Airlines, is to commence operations in the near future.
Initially, the revenue flights will be operated by a Boeing 737-300F freighter, representatives of the carrier told CentralAsia+ Aero. China is designated as a first potential destination. In the future the airline would like to have its fleet added with Boeing 747-400F widebody.
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A major international airline partner is needed to develop a transit cargo air service in Kazakhstan, believes Askar Kairov, director of the Department of Transport and Communications of the Samruk Kazyna, national welfare fund. In addition, a local feeder air carrier needs to be created. This opinion was expressed today at the conference #TIACA Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub in Astana.
He explained that the search for a partner has not yet begun, while the fund is only considering such a possibility. A foreign partner could also become a co-investor of a new local airline, which would carry out feeder transportation across the country and broader region.
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Almaty, Astana and Karaganda airports signed Memorandums of Understanding on cooperation with the International Air Cargo Association (#TIACA). The signing ceremony took place at the Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub forum organized by the association in Astana on June 20.
According to TIACA Chairman Steven Polmans, these agreements will allow the association to provide assistance to Kazakhstan's airports. He also hopes they will become members of the association, which is holding its first event in Central Asia.
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Türkiye’s logistics company SSistem will build a multimodal cargo terminal at Aktobe Airport (Kazakhstan), the company's CIS representative Selami Avci announced today at the #TIACA Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub conference.
Construction of the terminal is to begin this year, with its completion expected in 2025, he told CentralAsia+ Aero. The company is now assessing the amount of investment required for the project.
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The combat actions in Ukraine has drastically changed the structure of Kazakhstan’s airspace use by foreign carriers, Kairat Tlenshin, representative of Kazaeronavigatsiya, told the #TIACA Silk Road in the Sky - Kazakhstan Air Cargo Hub conference in Astana.
According to him, there are fewer transit flights from Europe to Asia and cross-Polar routes. Some airlines from South Asia began to fly around Kazakhstan to the south. At the same time, a number of airlines from China and Japan, on the contrary, began to use routes over Kazakhstan, avoiding Russia.
Also, Russian airlines began to actively fly through the west of Kazakhstan, bypassing the closed airspace in the southwest of their country on their way to Sochi and Turkey.
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Kyrgyz airline Tez Jet launched domestic seasonal flights to Issyk-Kul resort. Today, June 21, the regional carrier performed the first flight on Osh (OSS) - Issyk-Kul (Tamchi, IKU) route, reported MAM, which manages airports of Kyrgyzstan.
Flights from Jalal-Abad (JBD) to Issyk-Kul will be added starting July 1.
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Having achieved notable success in the development of the capital's Baku Heydar Aliyev airport (recorded 36% traffic growth in May), which accounts for the lion's share of the country's passenger traffic, Azerbaijan is striving to develop an international network at its other domestic airports as well.
The country's main regional airports (Nakhchivan, Ganja and Lankaran) also represent an active network of international routes.
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The number of flights between Kazakhstan and China set to increase significantly with the number of designated carriers and destinations will grow, and the Central Asian republic gets the privilege for its airlines to operate fifth freedom flights to China.
These and other agreements were reached following talks held this week between the aviation authorities of Kazakhstan and China within the framework of the China-Central Asia (C5+1) Civil Aviation Cooperation Working Group Conference held in Xi'an.
During the talks, an agreement was reached to expand the number of flights between the two countries to 124 per week, while cargo flights can now be operated without any restrictions on destinations and frequencies. As of late May, there were 43 flights operated per week between the countries.
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Urgench International Airport (UGC, Uzbekistan) will be temporarily closed from July 20 to August 7 due to the planned start of runway overhaul.
The construction and repair work involves replacing and reinforcing the runway surface along its entire length of 3,000 meters and width of 16 meters. The surface of the second and third taxiways will be overhauled as well, Uzbekistan Airports, the management company said.
Once the work is completed, Urgench Airport will be able to handle widebody aircraft such as Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 without restrictions. These aircraft types can be used for pilgrims going to Hajj and Umrah as well as air cargo operations.
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Civil Aviation Agency Uzaviation and ICAO have jointly developed and signed the State Strategic Plan of Action (COSPA) to improve flight safety in Uzbekistan for 2024-2026.
By signing the document last week, Uzbekistan became the first state to benefit from a COSPA program.
The COSPA initiative will be implemented with the assistance of partners, including France (DGCA and BEA), the USA (FAA and NTSB), as well as ACI/ACI-Europe, IATA, Airbus, Boeing and the World Bank.
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The number of airlines authorized to operate scheduled flights between Uzbekistan and China has been increased from 3 to 6 on each side, and the number of frequencies between the two nations by designated carriers has been increased from the current 15 per week to 50 on each side.
Thus, the total number of weekly scheduled passenger flights between the countries will increase to 100.
This agreement was reached following talks held this week between the aviation authorities of Uzbekistan and China within the framework of the China-Central Asia (C5+1) Civil Aviation Cooperation Working Group Conference held in Xi'an last week.
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The new Uzbek cargo airline Fly Khiva has begun revenue flights, reported its commercial director, Farhad Mukhutdinov.
Previously, he had promised that the carrier would start its operations with flights to Dubai. However, the airline’s only aircraft, a Boeing 767-300F, made its first commercial flight on June 25 from Tashkent to Erbil in Iraq, according to Flightradar24 tracking service.
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Air Astana, Kazakhstan's flagship carrier, took delivery of yet another new Airbus A320neo. The aircraft is the 47th representative of the Airbus narrowbody family in the fleet of Air Astana Group (which also includes budget carrier FlyArystan).
The group now has a total of 54 airplanes at its disposal.
The airсraft (MSN 12096), which arrived in Astana directly from the Toulouse manufacturing plant, is powered with PW1127G geared turbofan engines and received EI-KIA registration.
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