New Domestic Airline in Kazakhstan

The Government of Kazakhstan is launching a new domestic airline called Air Kazakhstan.

This new airline will be owned by the countries sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, which also holds a stake in the flag carrier Air Astana.

So far, Air Astana is the only carrier in Kazakhstan that is not on the European aviation's blacklist, and the partnership between the two airlines suggest that Air Astana will focus more on its international routes.

Air Astana president Peter Foster said in a statement that “Air Astana has been involved in the discussions of the formation of a regional airline with our majority shareholder, Samruk-Kazyna, since we retired the Fokker 50 fleet last January. Many domestic airports cannot serve Air Astana’s all-jet fleet and the company needed to take steps to serve these cities with modern turboprops operating to internationally compliant standards". 

The first flights of Air Kazakhstan is expected in early 2015 and will be operating the turboprop Bombardier aircraft from the many smaller domestic airports which is now mostly served by other airlines utilising much older Soviet era aircraft.

“We welcome the decision, and expect to work closely with the new airline to jointly develop these markets for the benefit of both airlines and of the traveling public,” Peter Foster added.