Kazakh airlines no longer banned from flying to Europe

Monday, June 6, 2022

On June 1st, the Air Safety Committee of the European Commissions published its official verdict concerning aviation authorities and airline companies in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development.

Kairbek Uskenbayev, head of the ministry, said that aviation authorities of all 27 EU member states have decided not to put any restrictions on Kazakhstan’s airlines that fly to Europe and not to put Kazakhstan on the EU Air Safety List.

Uskenbayev said the results were a great achievement for the Central Asian country.

The EU Air Safety List not only helps to maintain high levels of safety in the EU, but it also helps affected countries to improve their levels of safety, in order for them to eventually be taken off the list.

The list has become a major preventive tool, as it motivates countries with safety problems to act upon them before a ban under the EU Air Safety List would become necessary.

It was a very positive assessment of the flight safety in Kazakhstan and the measures taken by Kazakh Government over the past three years.

Kairbek Uskenbayev, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development

In 2009, an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) showed a low rate of ICAO standards implementation (47%) in the country. As a result, the European Commission banned Kazakhstan’s airlines from flying to Europe.

The only exception was Air Astana, although the company was prohibited from either geographical expansion of its destinations or buying new aircraft.

Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport

In 2021, right after the crash of the aircraft of Bek Air, the European Commission raised the air safety issue in Kazakhstan once again.

Kazakhstan’s air authority responded with a detailed action plan. When the country showed its willingness to fix all those problems, the European Commission agreed to abstain from any actions.

In 2021, Kazakhstan’s air safety rate was 15% higher than the global ICAO rate on average.

The agency has raised its air safety mark for Kazakhstan to 84%, which is similar to many European countries such as the Netherlands (87%), Belgium (87%), Portugal (87%), Czech Republic (87%), Latvia (86%), Denmark (85%), Iceland (84%), Poland (84%), Slovenia (82%) and Cyprus (82%).

Kairbek Uskenbayev, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development said that after the restrictions were lifted in 2016, the team of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did a great job so that the situation would not repeat itself.

According to a magazine, Air Astana has launched a new route expansion from June 1st into Greece between Nur-Sultan and Heraklion, in addition to the already established Almaty-Heraklion-Almaty route.


The flights are being operated on its Airbus A321neo aircraft. The airline also resumed its Almaty-Montenegro-Almaty route on June 1st, using the Airbus A321LRs.

The number of flights on the Nur-Sultan-Frankfurt route were increased from five to six flights on May 15h, and from June 1st there are seven.

FlyArystan will also launch its Aktau-Prague-Aktaue route on June 12th, reports a magazine. The flights will be first operated once weekly on Sundays and then promoted to twice-weekly to include Thursdays from July 6th.

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