According to the Civil Aviation Committee’s press service, a memorandum on regular air transportation tripling the number of cargo transit flights per week was signed by Kazakhstan and Luxembourg at an event held to mark the 77th flight by the Cargolux airline at the Astana International Airport on June 29.
Kazakh Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Marat Karabayev said that the key agreement was to increase the number of cargo flights from Luxembourg from 7 to 21 a week. He added that flights that used to be charter now have become regular.
Karabayev said that after France and Finland, Luxembourg is the third country with which Kazakhstan signs the fifth level of openness within the open skies policy.
This agreement opened up new opportunities for Kazakhstan’s aviation industry and made the country a key transit hub between Europe and Southeast Asia.
According to Karabayev, additional opportunities for Kazakh aviators’ professional growth and entrepreneurs are provided by new transit flights. The local market can get the goods unloaded in Kazakhstan, while Europe and Southeast Asia will get products loaded in Astana.
The first flight to Astana was made by Cargolux on May 1. Seven flights a week are operated by the airline, providing air connection between Luxembourg, China and Japan through the airport in Astana.
Cargolux President Richard Forson stated that a further increase in the frequency of regular cargo flights to 42 per week in both directions is envisaged by the intergovernmental agreement.
According to Forson, Cargolux hopes that this will lead to an increase in cargo transportation through Astana International Airport in the future, as it connects Europe and Asia.
Cargolux Airlines International S.A., founded in 1970 in Luxembourg, is Europe’s largest cargo carrier, operating 30 aircraft of Boeing 747 and flying to more than 50 destinations worldwide.
The company resumed flights to several Russian cities.
The issue of expanding air traffic between Kazakhstan and Bashkortostan was also worked out by the Civil Aviation Committee. Regular passenger flights on the Astana-Ufa route with a frequency of two flights per week on Tuesdays and Fridays on Sukhoi Superjet 95 aircraft will be resumed by Red Wings airline from July 25.
Regular passenger flights on the Almaty-Sochi route with a frequency of one flight per week on Thursdays on the same type of aircraft were resumed by Russia’s Azimuth Airlines from June 28.
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