ASTANA – Foreign airlines are now entitled to operate flights to several airports in Kazakhstan without restrictions on frequencies and aircraft types, reported the Kazakh Transport Ministry’s press service.
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The measure also includes the fifth freedom of the air, the right to carry passengers and cargo between two countries where neither is the home base of the airline operating it.
The decision, undertaken by the Kazakh Transport Ministry and the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition, is aimed at facilitating the reduction of the cost of air tickets and expanding the geography of flights.
The open sky policy has been introduced at international airports in Astana, Almaty, Taraz, Shymkent, Aktau, Semipalatinsk, Karagandy, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, Kokshetau, Turkistan and Aktobe.
Fifth freedom flights foster competition and can provide travelers with economic leeway and increased award availability.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines the fifth freedom of the air as “the right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international air services, granted by one state to another state to put down and to take on, in the territory of the first state, traffic coming from or destined to a third state.”
At the beginning of this year, the ministry’s Civil Aviation Committee extended the open sky aviation policy for five years to Dec. 26, 2027.
