Transaero Boosts Flights Between Russia and Kazakhstan

Independent Russian carrier, Transaero Airlines, has this week inaugurated flights between Moscow and Kokshetau, the largest town of the Akmola Province in northern Kazakhstan. The airline is the sole carrier to link the destination to Russia and will in fact be the first carrier to offer international service from Kokshetau Airport since summer 2004 when Aero Flight offered seasonal flights to Frankfurt between June and August.

The new route launch comes as Transaero celebrates 20 years of operations into Kazakhstan. It made its debut in the country in 1993 when it launched a twice weekly link between Moscow and Almaty and just two years later became the first foreign carrier to introduce flights between Moscow and Astana (then Akmola) in response to a personal request made by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev in 1995. It is now the largest foreign airline operating flights to Kazakhstan in terms of passenger traffic carrying nearly four million passengers between Russia and Kazakhstan over the past 20 years.

The new Moscow Vnukovo – Kokshetau route was launched on December 14, 2013 and is being flown on a twice weekly basis using a two-class Boeing 737-700. Its launch follows the comprehensive reconstruction of the runway and passenger terminal at the Kazakh airport and means that from this month Transaero is offering direct links from Moscow to eight Kazakh cities – Astana, Almaty, Aktau, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kokshetau, Kostanay and Shimket.

Kokshetau is well known for its nature and tourist sites and census data from 2009 lists it as having a population of 135,106. It was founded in 1824 as a fortress, and takes its name from the Kokshetau hill on which it was built (translates into English as ‘blue mountain’). Certainly not a major Kazakh business centre, there are urban light industries around Kokshetau such as food production, a gold mining operation north of the city and the region produces low grades of wheat and other cultures, which will help support mainly leisure demand on the route.

According to MIDT data, an estimated 1.01 million bi-directional O&D passengers flew between destinations in Russia and points across Kazakhstan in 2012. This represented an annual growth of 14.1 per cent versus the previous year. Transaero was the dominant carrier in this market in 2012 with a 36.7 per cent share of the traffic, although Kazakhstan flag carrier Air Astana was only just behind with a growing 36.1 per cent share after expanding its activities between the two countries.

In the table below we look in greater detail at the available seat capacity between Russia and Kazakhstan over the past ten years. With the exception of 2009, the market has been in growth in every one of the past ten years with capacity rising by its largest share, 38.4 per cent, this year. Our analysis highlights the important role that Transaero has played in providing connectivity between Russia and Kazakhstan, with this year the first across the ten year period in which it has not been the market leader in terms of capacity.