Air Kazakhstan (1996) (Almaty International) is to be renamed Qazaq Air (IQ, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) upon its launch later this year the chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakhstan, Beken Seidakhmet, has disclosed.
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Seidakhmet said that following consultations, the carrier would now be 100%-owned by the Kazakh sovereign investment fund Samruk-Kazyna NWF and would also ply some regional routes in addition to its original all-domestic mandate.
The carrier is expected to take delivery of its first five of ten Dash 8-400s on order from Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) between March and April of this year. Thereafter, the turboprops will be based out of Almaty International and Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev initially before expanding to Aktau and Atyrau in due course.
Competition will come from Southern Sky Airlines (IH, Shymkent), the all-An-24 subsidiary of SCAT Airlines (DV, Shymkent) established last year to serve the Kazakh domestic market.
