Prospects for Opening Direct Flight with Kazakhstan Discussed in the United States

On April 4 – 7, 2022 with the support of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United States, the Kazakh delegation of the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development and the Aviation Administration headed by the Chairman of the CAC Talgat Lastayev paid a visit to the United States.

The key purpose of the visit was to conduct negotiations with the American side regarding the establishment of direct air communication between Kazakhstan and the United States within the Open Skies Agreement that entered into force on April 1. The consultations were held with representatives of the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States. They discussed in detail the ways, terms and possibilities for Kazakhstan to obtain the FAA IASA Category 1 certification necessary for initiating direct flights, as well as the possibility of obtaining the appropriate licenses by Kazakhstani airlines.

During the meetings in Washington, D.C. the American side was informed about Kazakhstan’s aviation security. In particular, one of the important achievements of 2021 is the successful ICAO audit, as a result of which Kazakhstan upgraded the level of flight safety to 84%, which is 15% higher than the world average. According to this indicator, Kazakhstan is at the same level with the leading countries, such as: the Netherlands - 87%; Belgium - 87%; Denmark - 85%; Iceland - 84%; Poland - 84%, etc.

Within the visit, the delegation also visited the airplane manufacturing Boeing Everett Factory in Washington State. The fruitful talks were held with Stanley Deal, CEO of the Boeing Commercial Aircraft, and Monte Frazier, Vice President for the CIS, on the prospects for further cooperation in the context of launching direct flights.

As part of the trip to Seattle Ambassador of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Ashikbayev also met with representatives of the leading companies such as Amazon Inc. and Amazon Web Services, faculty members and students of the University of Washington, and the Kazakh diaspora.

Amazon's management presented the Project Kuiper for the deployment of broadband satellite Internet, according to which Kazakhstanis could be among the first to use these services.

The participants of the meeting also considered the expanding the services of the Amazon.com trading platform for Kazakhstani entrepreneurs. Separately, the logistics service “Fulfillment by Amazon” was discussed, which would give an additional impetus to the development of electronic commerce in Kazakhstan.

On the same day, the Kazakhstani diplomat gave a lecture at the University of Washington on the ongoing reforms in the country and the main provisions of the Address of the Head of State.