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• Erid: 122332213236
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• Организация 2

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan, has criticized the sluggish progress in establishing a national cargo airline. Speaking at a session of the National Kurultay on January 20, he described the government’s decision to assign this task to the state-owned railway company, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), as a mistake.

“If the government is unable to fulfill this mandate, the matter should be handed over to private entities,” the Kazakh leader said.

In October 2025, KTZ’s subsidiary, KTZ Express, registered a new cargo carrier, KTZ Air Cargo. At the time, it was anticipated that the airline would begin operations by mid-2026, utilizing three Boeing 767 or Airbus A330 freighters. The initiative was intended to better harness Kazakhstan’s potential as a transit hub for air cargo between China and Europe.

“The fact that our country has not yet become a Eurasian hub for air cargo is, in my view, an unforgivable omission—simply put, it is absurd,” Tokayev remarked.

Currently, Kazakhstan has only one specialized private cargo airline, Alpha Sky. Based at Turkistan International Airport, it operates a fleet of two Boeing 737-400F and one Boeing 757-200Fs. Additionally, Erlan Ospanov, a co-owner of Karaganda Airport, has previously announced plans to launch another cargo carrier, Altair Airlines.