Air Kazakhstan (1996) (Almaty International) may yet be equipped with Dash 8-400s Umurzak Shukeyev has said, adding that a new round of talks with various aircraft manufacturers has now opened.
Shukeyev, who is the head of Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna JSC, told Central Asian Aero News last week that while original plans called for the Kazakh domestic specialist to be equipped with ten Q400s initially, those plans could change as a result of the tougher economic climate, both in Kazakhstan as well as in the petroleum-dependent region as whole.
“We had agreed with one company, but now, the situation has changed, and we have started a new round of negotiations. So we do not exclude [the possibility that] we could change supplier,” he said. “We very actively negotiated with the supplier of equipment, conducted a tender as to what aircraft to buy, set up a company, agreed about the cost of this technology. But there have been some changes, such as crises, devaluation, and as a result, overall prices have changed. So we will hold a new round of negotiations and we hope that we will be able to reduce the cost of these aircraft that we want to buy.”
The carrier was to have commenced scheduled domestic as well as some regional services during the second half of 2015. It was claimed the turboprops would have been sourced from Bombardier Aerospace's Q400NG joint-venture with Russian firm Rostec. However, with Canada's recent imposition of economic sanctions against Russia for the latter's involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin has now poured cold water on the venture ever taking off.
Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov was last week quoted by the Interfax news agency as stating that the country's current economic conditions had rendered the project obsolete.
"We do not see any further prospects for the development of this project. If it had been done faster and with more urgency, then may be, this project would have come to life. But we have now wasted more than a year and today, it is certainly no longer relevant," he said.
