Flourishing Kazakh flag carrier Air Astana has much to celebrate as its 20th birthday approaches – not least a predicted return to profit despite the global pandemic. Jozef Mols details how the former Soviet republic is taking on the world
Although Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country – boasting an area of 1,052,100sq miles (2,724,900km²) or about the size of western Europe – it has a population just shy of 19 million people. As Central Asia’s most dominant economic nation, it generates more than 60% of the region’s GDP (gross domestic product), primarily through its vast oil and gas industry. Given the country’s immense territory and relatively small population, aviation is of utmost importance to the Kazakh people.
Breaking away
Following the aborted August 1991 coup in Moscow, on December 16 that year Kazakhstan became the last Soviet republic to declare its independence. Despite this, Russia’s Aeroflot remained the nation’s primary airline. Two years previously, Kazakhstan’s first private airline, Sayakhat Airlines, had been formed by local businessman Vladimir Kouropatenko and the so-called ‘father of Kazakhstani aviation’ Nikolai Alexeyevich Kuznetsov, but it only flew cargo charters.
