Astana airport terminal construction nears completion

ASTANA – The project to build a new 60.2 billion tenge (US$188.7 million) terminal for the capital’s airport is being implemented. However, the terminal construction requires 20 billion tenge (US$62.7 million) more than expected.

Photo credit: kazpravda.kz

Photo credit: kazpravda.kz

Berik Beisengaliyev, a managing director of Asset Optimisation at Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund, spoke about the progress of building the new terminal, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda reported.

According to him, the construction is nearing completion and will finish in May this year. An additional loan of $62.7 million is now being registered at Development Bank of Kazakhstan to realise this project.

“The project is being implemented via Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Investment and Development. The project will allow increasing a peak carrying capacity of passengers from 750 to 2,000 passengers per hour or increasing an annual carrying capacity from 3.5 million to 7 million passengers, the project is in the active stage of implementation,” Beisengaliyev noted.

He also mentioned that two new airplanes are about to be purchased for the Qazaq Air airline.

“Within the first year of its operation, the airline company has transported more than 160,000 passengers with three aircrafts between the country’s 12 cities. Increasing the fleet by two more aircrafts during years 2017-2018 is being planned in the nearest time and according to a business plan, achieving final cause productive capacity of 450,000 passengers per year is planned for 2019,” Beisengaliyev added.

Head of Department of Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakh Ministry of Investment and Development Amantai Kokatayev informed that the new Astana airport terminal is expected to provide comfortable passenger flow for the next 10 years, Kazinform news agency reported.

The area of the new terminal will be 47,000 square metres.

Construction of the terminal began in January 2015 and will be completed in March. Almost all works on building the terminal have been completed except for equipment assembly and interior finishing.


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