Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.7
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The air transportation of passengers in Kazakhstan has amounted to 5.6 million passengers during the first eight months of 2019, which is 1.8 percent more compared to the same period of last year, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the prime minister of Kazakhstan.
The announcement was made during the government session chaired by Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Askar Mamin, during which the issues of civil aviation development and measures for further decrease of air tickets prices were discussed.
According to the information, the geography of flights is expanding. Thus, Kazakhstan implements flights to 24 foreign countries via 99 international routes, including those opened in 2019 from Nur Sultan to Tokyo, Prague, and Ulan-Bator. A regular flight connection with nine world financial centers is also established.
Furthermore, with an idea to reduce air tickets prices, a FlyArystan low-cost airline has been launched. The company is planning to launch air flights from Nur-Sultan to Pavlodar, Semey and Shymkent at a ticket price of 5,999 tenge ($15) in the near future. By the end of 2020, the low-cost airline will fly to most regional centers and will establish flights to Moscow.
As noted by the Managing Director for Transport and Logistics of Samruk-Kazyna (National Welfare Fund) Kanat Alpysbayev, the average FlyArystan tariff is four times lower than the tariffs of European low-cost airlines.
In his turn, Mamin instructed to continue work on launching flights to Shanghai and Singapore in 2020, to complete accreditation procedures for domestic airlines to open flights to New York, to complete the reconstruction of the runways of Kostanay and Balkhash airports by the end of 2019, to complete the construction of an airport in Turkestan and the terminal in Shymkent on time, to accelerate the development and adoption of a program for the development of small aircraft and airfields in the regions.
He also set the task to intensify work on providing "open skies" regime for domestic carriers at domestic airports, which, due to the attraction of new foreign airlines, the expansion of the route network, and increased competition, is intended to influence the reduction in airfare.
Given that more than 20 percent of the ticket price is occupied by the share of expenses on aviation fuel, the ministries of the national economy, energy, industry and infrastructure development have been instructed to work out issues of pricing for jet fuel.
The prime minister also instructed the Samruk-Kazyna Fund to ensure an increase in the fleet of airlines operated by the state holding and expansion of the geography of flights in 2020.
(1 USD = 388.89 KZT on October 7)
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