Kazakhstan’s airports will continue to add new international flights as part of the government’s open skies policy, QazMonitor reports.
The prime minister announced the opening of several routes during a meeting on January 1.
Turkiye remains one of the most popular destinations in Kazakhstan. Travelers will soon be able to fly directly to Ankara from Aktau and Shymkent and to Antalya from Astana and Almaty. Flights to Istanbul will be available in five Kazakh cities: Astana, Almaty, Aktau, Turkistan, and Atyrau.
Currently, Kazakhstan enjoys a visa-free regime with 81 countries. Visitors planning a vacation in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Thailand, and Maldives will be able to book tickets from Almaty to Baku, Tbilisi, Phuket and Male.
The Astana–Baku route will be added in the spring and summer seasons. Other routes to Georgian cities include Astana–Tbilisi and Almaty–Batumi. Shymkent airport will add new destinations: Dushanbe and Kutaisi.
In 2022, the country came to an agreement to open flights to brand new destinations. There will be direct routes to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, China, Great Britain, Greece, and Montenegro.
Astana airport plans to add direct flights to Doha and Podgorica while travelers will be able to arrive in Medina from Almaty and Aktau. Almaty airport will also open routes to Karachi and Lahore, as well as increase the number of flights to Delhi, Chengdu, London, Bodrum, Heraklion, and Podgorica.
Kazakhstan will resume the following international routes: Astana–Bishkek, Aktau–Yerevan, and Almaty–Samarkand.
Malaysian low-cost airline Air Asia X plans to start flights from Kuala Lumpur to Almaty starting in the spring and summer seasons, and Thai Air Asia will fly passengers from Bangkok to Almaty. Qeshm Air is expected to operate in the Almaty–Tokyo direction through the fifth “freedom of the air” right.
The largest national airline Air Astana is working on launching biweekly flights to Israel via the Almaty–Tel Aviv route.