ASTANA – A Kazakh delegation led by Vice Minister of Transport Talgat Lastayev has reached an agreement with Vietnam, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to increase permitted flight frequencies more than fivefold from 14 to 73 weekly, reported the Kazakh Transport Ministry’s press service.
ICAN2024. Photo credit: gov.kz
The documents were signed at the 16th International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Air Services Negotiation (ICAN2024) Event, held on Oct. 21-25 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The event, chaired by ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano, brought together over 700 participants from more than 70 countries and hosted approximately 800 bilateral negotiations.
Following the talks, Kazakhstan implemented open skies agreements with Singapore, Vietnam, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Georgia, which will allow carriers to operate with the fifth degree of freedom of the air. The country also secured rights for flights to the UK and agreed to establish air connectivity from Kazakhstan and Russia to the city of Baikonur to boost tourist numbers to the famous cosmodrome.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the autumn-winter period, Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier, Air Astana, has launched new international routes and increased flight frequencies on existing ones.
In late October, the airline opened flights from Astana to Phuket and Abu Dhabi, Almaty to Phu Quoc and Medina, and Atyrau to Dubai. From Dec. 12, Air Astana will add an Almaty-Abu Dhabi route.
The airline also increases frequencies from Astana to Seoul to three flights per week and from Almaty and Astana to Dubai to eleven and nine, respectively.
