The Vice President of Logistics at Kazakhstan Railways, Kanat Alpysbayev, says work has already begun to establish a dedicated national cargo airline in partnership with Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev).
Alpysbayev told the Kazakh Today news agency that the unnamed carrier would strengthen Kazakhstan's competitiveness as an East-West hub in the global market. Operationally, it is hoped the new airline will launch during 2017 offering regular cargo flights to China, Europe, Iran, Russia, and Turkey.
Of the Central Asian ex-Soviet states, Kazakhstan has lagged behind Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan in tapping into the Europe-Asia market. For its part Uzbekistan has Uzbekistan Airways (HY, Tashkent International) with its fleet of two B767-300Fs and Azerbaijan has Silk Way Airlines (ZP, Baku Heydar Aliev International) and its associated Silk Way West Airlines (7L, Baku Heydar Aliev International) (and soon Silk Way East Airlines (Baku Heydar Aliev International)) subsidiaries.
