Air Kazakhstan (1996) (Almaty International) will source its fleet of Dash 8-400s from Russia where local conglomerate Rostec is scheduled to partner Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) in establishing a production facility in 2015.
The fate of the joint-venture has been in limbo since Russia's unilateral annexation of Crimea and the West's subsequent imposition of punitive sanctions on the country. However, despite the diplomatic impasse, Bombardier says it is “fully committed” to the project which will be set up in a special economic zone in the Ulyanovsk region.
On the Kazakh front, the aircraft will be used to establish an extensive domestic network which president Nursultan Nazarbayev hopes will help improve local connectivity while driving down costs.
Calls to develop the carrier into a budget airline fell on deaf ears last week when the country's Ministry of Transport and Communications roundly rejected the proposal on the grounds that Kazakhstan was still not ready for the development of a native LCC market.
Citing a lack of competitiveness among city airports as well as a dearth of reliable, international-standard MRO facilities, the Ministry said the Kazakh market was still too immature to support both traditional and low-cost carriers.
"These conditions are fully met only in large countries with a large and highly mobile population. For example, there are successful low-cost air carriers in Europe (Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), easyJet (London Luton)) and the United States (Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field)). Lack of these conditions in Kazakhstan makes the emergence of low-cost airlines highly improbable," the Ministry told the Tengrinews network.
