ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 24. There is an increase in the main indicators in the field of civil aviation in Kazakhstan in 2023, said the Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan Marat Karabayev, Trend reports.
He made the remark during an expanded board meeting at the Ministry of Transport, chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Roman Sklyar.
"There is an increase in the main indicators in the field of civil aviation in Kazakhstan in 2023. Domestic airlines carried 13.3 million passengers, which is 21 percent more than the previous year. The number of passengers served at airports increased by 24 percent and amounted to 26.1 million people," he said.
According to the minister, significant growth is observed at Almaty and Astana airports, where last year there was a record - 9.6 million (an increase of 31 percent) and 7.5 million passengers (an increase of 27 percent), respectively. At the same time, the volume of cargo processed at airports increased by 15 percent - up to 145,000 tons.
"To increase the sustainability of flights and the accessibility of air transportation, work continued to replenish the fleet of aircraft of domestic companies. In 2023, Kazakh airlines purchased 11 aircraft. As a result, the park's capacity increased by 28 percent - up to 15,400 seats. In addition, in order to develop the cargo transportation segment, 3 new cargo air carriers were created," the minister noted.
Furthermore, Kazakhstan is taking consistent steps to develop air transport in the country.
Thus, thanks to private investment, three new passenger terminals are being built in the airports of Shymkent, Kyzylorda, and Almaty. The completion of the work is expected next year.
Moreover, Kazakhstan has established international flights with 28 countries today. Flights are operated on 108 routes with a frequency of 550 flights per week by 4 Kazakh and 30 foreign air carriers.
As the Minister previously stated, Kazakhstan is interested in transferring 22 airports under the management of European investors. In the field of civil aviation, two largest airports of Kazakhstan were transferred to private ownership.
"The Turkish-French company TAV Airports Holding, which partly belongs to the Paris airport, manages the Almaty airport with a passenger turnover of ruffly 10 million passengers. We gave our capital's airport, Astana airport, to the trust of management to Terminals Holding, which manages Abu Dhabi airport. So here we are ready to give the remaining 22 airports of Kazakhstan to European investors for management, which have a great potential to become a transit hub between Asia and Europe," the minister noted.