BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 1. Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air company plans to resume flights in the direction of Baku, a source at the company told Trend.
"Currently, flights in the Aktobe-Baku-Aktobe direction are suspended. The resumption of flights is planned for the summer period of 2024," the source said.
On July 7, 2022, the Kazakh air carrier began operating regular flights on the route Aktobe-Baku-Aktobe and Astana-Baku-Astana (transit through Aktobe). Flights were later suspended.
In addition, the source noted that the airline is also considering launching flights to Azerbaijan from other cities of Kazakhstan. However, no decision has been made yet.
Speaking about the resumption and increase of flights in other directions, the source noted that at the moment Qazaq Air is considering the resumption of flights to the city of Kazan (Russian Federation) from the city of Aktobe.
"There are no plans to increase the number of flights on existing routes," the source added.
Qazaq Air is an interregional airline created by the National Welfare Fund of Kazakhstan Samruk-Kazyna JSC to improve the safety and accessibility of interregional air traffic in Kazakhstan and the border areas of neighboring countries.
As per data provided by Azerbaijan's State Tourism Agency, from January through September 2023, 42,124 Kazakh tourists visited Azerbaijan, which is 38.8 percent more than in the same period in 2022 (30,350).
In addition, 6,653 tourists from Kazakhstan visited Azerbaijan in September 2023, which is 111 percent more compared to the same month in 2022 (3,151). Thus, Kazakhstan entered the top 10 countries from which the most tourists arrived in Azerbaijan in September and took seventh place.