Kazakhstan Expands Its Airline Ties With Spain, & The U.S. Could Be Next

The Caspian region will be even more connected to Europe once Kazakhstani commercial airlines start offering regular, direct flights to Spain.

According to the Kazakhstan Civil Aviation Committee, an agreement on air traffic between the two countries to create a legal basis for direct flights has already been signed. Kazakhstan’s airline Air Astana operates direct flights to Madrid four times a week, but the new agreement will increase the number of passenger flights to seven per week.

Regular flights that will connect Adolfo Suarez Barajas International Airport in Madrid with Air Astana’s domestic hubs will begin on April 23 from Nur-Sultan (formerly known as Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan) and on April 24, from Almaty.

“The designated airlines of both sides got the right to operate seven regular passenger and combined flights a week on any type of aircraft, as well as seven regular cargo flights a week on any type of aircraft,” the committee’s press service said, according to reports by Sputnik.

In addition, the airlines will benefit from the code-sharing agreements with each other as well as with a third party. A code share flight is a flight that is marketed by one carrier and operated by another. Code share flights come about as a result of agreements between airlines to sell seats on each other’s flights in order to provide passengers with a wider choice of destinations.

The committee’s announcement came after recent changes caused by an agreement signed between Kazakhstan and Japan. Earlier this month, the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee chose Air Astana to operate a segment between Nur-Sultan and Tokyo, to start sometime in the middle of this year. Flights will be operated twice a week on a Boeing 767 aircraft, and frequency may increase up to 14 flights per week.

With an aim to join the list of 30 countries deemed most attractive for tourists, the government in Nur-Sultan is working hard to expand the transport accessibility of what is Central Asia’s largest country and biggest economy. At the same time, flights abroad are becoming more of a reality for residents and citizens in what was once a Soviet republic.

Air Astana is in the process of upgrading its fleet of jets so they meet western aviation standards, particularly those of the United States. When President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the U.S. in January 2018, he signed $2.5 billion in deals including those related to orders for three 787 Dreamliner jumbo jets from Boeing. The first Dreamliner will be delivered to Air Astana next year.

Meanwhile, the company hopes to also launch direct connections to Singapore, Shanghai and New York.

Officials in Astana say an agreement covering air traffic between the U.S. and Kazakhstan is currently under development. For that to happen, Air Astana and the Civil Aviation Committee must first be audited by U.S. aviation authorities to ensure compliance with American air safety criteria.

“It takes a long time, about two years. Therefore, it is possible to attract American airlines,” said Roman Sklyar, who leads the country’s ministry of industry and infrastructure development, according to reports by Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

Kazakhstan’s air carriers will be able to fly to the United States in 2021, according to Sklyar. Once Kazakhstan starts operating nonstop flights to the United States, it will be the second Caspian country, following Azerbaijan, to launch a direct flight to the United States using the Dreamliner.