Tag Archives: aviation

Kazakhstan buys 10 planes

JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan finalised a deal with Canada’s Bombardier aircraft maker to buy 10 Q400 passenger aircraft for $230m for its new domestic airline.

The Q400 is a 70 person twin-propeller airplane, designed for short range flights.

The size of the deal underlines Kazakhstan’s spending power and also its drive to build an airline specifically to service its domestic air routes.

Domestic transport is one sector that the Kazakh government has ploughed cash into over the past few years, specifically upgrading its rail and flight network.

“Each aircraft cost $23m. In March and April 2015 five or six aircraft will be delivered to Kazakhstan. From then on, they will start to operate domestic flights,” media quoted Nurjan Shakirov, head of the newly incorporated Air Kazakhstan, as saying.

This is, of course, good news for Kazakh air travels as well as for business and industry. It’s unclear, though, what impact this new airline will have on Air Astana, the country’s current flag carrier. Officials have said that Air Astana will concentrate on international flights and major regional routes, such as Almaty to Astana, while Air

Kazakhstan will connect less frequent domestic routes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Kazakh Air Astana plans IPO

JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Astana will aim for an IPO within three years, Peter Foster, its CEO, said, according to media. Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund owns 51% of Air Astana and BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) owns 49%. The Kazakh government has been looking to privatise various companies it owns.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Azerbaijan Airlines may cancel Boeing order

MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan Airlines may pull out of a deal to buy two Boeing Dreamliners, media reported. Reports said Azerbaijan Airlines had been due to take the first Dreamliner in June or July this year but that it was having second thoughts. Boeing has not commented.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Uzbek airline to boost presence

MAY 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan Airways is negotiating joining the Sky Team alliance whose members include Air France, Alitalia, three Chinese airlines and others, media reported. The Uzbek national airline has been pushing hard to boost its profile and routes over the past few months.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

New airport terminal opens in Azerbaijan

APRIL 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev officially opened a new terminal at Baku airport. The new terminal will double passenger capacity at Baku airport to 6m. The Azerbaijani authorities are pouring money into Baku, which they want to beautify and modernise.

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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Turkmenistan orders more Boeings

APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkmen government has ordered another batch of Boeing passenger planes, media reported. Turkmenistan Airlines is modernising and, according to earlier reports, bought three long-range Boeing 777-200. The latest order is for three more Boeing 737-800.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)

Turkmenistan buys Boeing aircrafts

APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s aviation sector received a boost when the national carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 777 passenger plane and also opened a new terminal at Ashgabat international airport, media reported.

The Boeing is the first of two on order for Turkmenistan Airlines. Turkmenistan has pledged to boost both its international and domestic air services.

Turkmenistan’s Boeing 777-200LR is a long-range plane that can carry between 315 and 450 passengers, depending on the seating arrangements.

The specific 200LR model entered service in 2006 and was a longer range version of previous Boeing 777 models. In 2006 it had the longest range of any commercial passenger plane and was dubbed the “Worldliner” because it could, theoretically, connect any two airports.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)

Airport in Kazakhstan faces bankruptcy

MARCH 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The impact of Kazakhstan’s 20% currency devaluation last month is beginning to filter through to business.

Kazakh senator Mikhail Bortnik said that unless JSC International Airport Aktau could restructure its dollar-denominated debt, it would go bankrupt.

JSC International Airport Aktau, which under a deal with Mangistau regional government is owned by Turkish company ATM until 2025, has re-built Aktau airport’s passenger terminal and runway over the last few years.

It is now Kazakhstan’s third busiest airport, behind Almaty and Astana, and hosts flights from Baku, Kiev, Moscow and central Europe.

But after February’s tenge devaluation the $47m debt that Mangistau regional government took on to re-build the airport from the state-run Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) has become 20% more expensive to service.

The problem for the DBK is that if it agrees to restructure the Aktau airport debt, it may have to restructure several other company debts too.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Kyrgyzstan wants to improve aviation safety

MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz government has drawn up a six year plan to improve its aviation safety, media reported. Media quoted Erkin Isakov, head of the civil aviation authority, listing the problems. “Insufficient funding, low professional level of staff, employee turnover, discrepancy in standards, as well as an imperfect legal framework,” Mr Iskaov was quoted as saying.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Kazakhstan wants new airport

MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has approved plans to build a new airport outside Almaty to serve as an international hub, media reported. The current airport at Almaty is too small to handle Kazakhstan’s ambitions of becoming a transit point for people flying between Europe and Asia.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)