The government of Kazakhstan has confirmed it will not embargo any local carriers despite the expiration of a January 1 deadline for all scheduled passenger airlines to have undertaken, and passed, IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certification.
The announcement comes after Bek Air (BEK, Almaty International) last week took the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee (KzCAC) to court in a bid to have the directive overturned and deemed illegal.
Though SCAT Airlines (DV, Shymkent) and Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) have already complied with the requirement, carriers such as Bek Air, ZhezAir (KZH, Zhezkazgan), Zhetysu (JTU, Taldy Kurgan), and Southern Sky Airlines (IH, Shymkent) have yet to do so leading to concerns their operations would be suspended come the deadline's passing. Qazaq Air (IQ, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) has been given two years to comply given that it only launched operations last year.
