"THE MAIN BET IS ON TRANSIT"

Air transport in Kazakhstan is interesting to watch. The country, which ranks 9th in the world, is developing its own carriers, modernizing airport infrastructure, and improving the regulation of air travel. Talgat Lastaev, Chairman of the civil aviation Committee of the Ministry of industry and infrastructure development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, shared his vision of the industry development with air Transport review.

ATO: Talgat Tleubekovich, I would like to start our conversation with the performance indicators of civil aviation in Kazakhstan. Air transport in the Republic has been increasing for several years in a row. Iatap Predicts that by 2037, Kazakh airlines will carry 18 million passengers annually. - according to this indicator, Kazakhstan will take the 8th place in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In your opinion, what will continue to grow civil aviation in Kazakhstan?

T. L.: in General, if we talk about the dynamics of changes in the main production indicators of civil aviation in the Republic of Kazakhstan, we see a constant and stable growth in the number of passengers carried by our country's airlines. This indicator is one of the most important for us. In 2017, all Kazakh airlines carried 7.4 million passengers. that is, more than 23 % more than in 2016. this was an unprecedented growth – global air transport in General is also growing, but, of course, not at double-digit rates. At the end of 2018 the dynamics of passenger traffic growth decreased to 6.8 %, but we again transported a record number of passengers-7.9 million, of Course, almost 8 million passengers across the Russian Federation. not much, but for our country of 18 million people – this is a very solid figure.

Now for the essence of your question. Taking into account the specifics of the geographical location of the Republic of Kazakhstan, we place our main bet on transit. We understand that our territory is conveniently located between two huge markets – the Russian Federation, Central Asia, the CIS and Europe on the one hand, and South-East Asia (China and other countries in this region) on the other. Therefore, we are doing a lot of work to develop transit air services through Kazakhstan. The entire ground-based air transport infrastructure has almost been modernized: almost all of our airports ' runways and terminal complexes have been updated. We are developing a map of international flights-every year we open about a dozen new foreign routes.

Of course, a huge increase in the number of passengers transported by the end of 2017 was achieved thanks to the holding of the world exhibition Expo in the capital of Kazakhstan. To meet the demand for air transportation, we have introduced an open sky mode at the Nursultan Nazarbayev international airport. We have allowed all foreign carriers to operate up to seven flights a week freely.  

ATO: What is the degree of freedom?

T. L.: This is the fourth degree of freedom for passenger air travel. We allowed cargo airlines to fly to Nur Sultan on the fifth degree of freedom. Thanks to the introduction of the fourth degree of freedom in 2017, European airlines WizzAir, LOT Polish Airlines and Finnair started flying to us. In 2018, airBaltic opened flights to Almaty. These foreign carriers and Kazakh airlines are aimed at transit passenger traffic between the markets that I mentioned above.

For example, you can conveniently get from Central Asia to Russia via Kazakhstan. From our country, you can fly to more than 30 major cities, including in the Eastern part of the Russian Federation. For this purpose, convenient connections have been formed at airports in Kazakhstan. Our civil aviation also serves traffic between the Russian Federation and South-East Asia. For example, this is Thailand, China, India, etc.

In order to become even more attractive in 2017, we introduced a 72-hour visa-free regime for Chinese and Indian citizens traveling through Kazakhstan in transit. This has yielded good results – passenger traffic from these countries is growing at a good pace.

By the end of last year, about a million transit passengers have already used Kazakhstan's airports. In 2017, there were 620 thousand such passengers, and six or seven years ago there were almost no such passengers. We started with 20 thousand passes. and brought their number to 900tys. people.

ATO: what is the short-term goal for this indicator?

T. L.: in 2020, 1.6 million transit passengers should pass through Kazakhstan. This task was set by the country's leadership.

ATO: Explain why it is necessary to increase the number of transit passengers?  Are you trying to increase the share of civil aviation in the structure of the gross domestic product (GDP)?

T. L.: You are right, the importance of civil aviation in the GDP structure should grow. And transit transport is a profitable export service. Having our own small domestic aviation market, we try to develop in two main directions. We are encouraging increased mobility of the population within the country – for this purpose, the low-cost airline FlyArystan started its production activities in may. In parallel, we continue to develop transit air transportation through Kazakhstan – as I said earlier. These two areas influence the sustainable development of the air transport market in the Republic.

ATO: but in General, do you agree with the fact that in a couple of decades the civil aviation of Kazakhstan will serve 18 million passengers?

T. L.: this is the first time I heard the Figure of 18 million passengers from you. I think that IATA analyzed all possible data before reporting such a figure. To achieve 18 million passengers., having now almost 8 million passes., realistically. If we maintain the growth rate, we will even overcome this bar. In any case, Kazakhstan's air transport has the goal of significantly increasing passenger traffic.

ATO: at the same time, Kazakhstan has two major airports-in Almaty and Nur Sultan. Are you trying to develop transit passenger traffic through both of these airports, or are you betting on one of them?

T. L.: we are trying to develop transit air transportation through both cities, as each of them has its own identity and peculiarity. We position them as hubs. Nur-Sultan is the new capital of Kazakhstan: it is modern, and a lot of cultural and political events are held here. Nur-Sultan is developing an international financial center, so we must think about convenient logistics so that business passengers can conveniently fly to the main city of Kazakhstan.

ATO: so Nur-Sultan is primarily focused on the business flow?

T. L.: Business, but the Kazakh capital is also interesting as a tourist destination. Almaty is more about history, mountains, and tourism. There is a more favorable climate for travel. But in General, I would like to note once again that our policy is aimed at developing both of these hubs. In the capital, for Expo-2017, we have upgraded the airport complex – the capacity of the Nursultan Nazarbayev airport has almost doubled, to 8 million passengers a year. In Almaty, a new terminal will also appear – for the development of transit at this airport, an increase in terminal space is overdue. I know that the airport's shareholders are working to start expanding the terminal.

ATO: Talgat Tuleubekovich You said about the introduction of fourth and fifth freedoms of the air. And what other regulatory measures are being taken, including by the civil aviation Committee, to encourage the same transit passenger traffic?

T. L.: We have implemented the "open sky" mode. We are following the path of gradual liberalization of air services with other countries. Every year, on the basis of bilateral agreements, we soften the requirements that are laid down in these agreements, that is, we allow more carriers to fly, and we give the legal opportunity to increase the number of flights.

The process of negotiations with partners is ongoing. You are well aware that international flights are almost always a parity, a balance of interests of carriers, airports and passengers.

We are constantly working in this direction and always meet with our colleagues. It is important for us to develop air traffic in a mutually beneficial way.

For example, recently the Russian side has a need to increase the number of flights to Novosibirsk. Previously, we were allowed seven flights a week between Almaty and Tolmachevo airport.  Siberia airlines saw an increase in traffic on this line and expressed a desire to fly 10 times a week, and we met them.

Therefore, at the international level, the Committee's daily scrupulous work is constantly being carried out. If we compare the dynamics of international communications, we have come a long way in the past five years. And many things that were restricted five years ago are now deregulated and there are virtually no restrictions.

We have virtually no restrictions on the number of carriers anywhere - 2-3 airlines can operate on the same line. We are gradually increasing the number of frequencies. And all this work is within the framework of the adopted policy of gradual liberalization of air services. Where this is necessary, where we see it as useful for the country and for passengers, we are definitely moving forward. We stand for the attractiveness and comfort of air links with Kazakhstan.

ATO: But the government in General, and you in particular, do not advocate a universal "open sky" for Kazakhstan. How do You feel about this issue?

T. L.: in General, there are a lot of different opinions on the "open sky" policy. I think we will come to this sooner or later. But the introduction of "open skies" is closely linked to the development of the national aviation industry.

As a rule, countries where the aviation industry is strong and powerful enough are supporters of the "open sky"policy.

And those countries that are still at the stage of development of the industry, at the stage of formation, they accordingly go from the policy of regulation to some kind of liberalization.

ATO: I would allow myself to argue with You. For example, Armenia had a weak industry, but they opened the sky. Do you want to strengthen your industry first so that it doesn't disappear?