Almaty International Airport

Almaty International Airport (IATA: ALA, ICAO: UAAA) (Kazakh: Halyqaralyq Almaty Áýejaıy), is a major international airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is also the largest international airport in Kazakhstan. Almaty International Airport is about 15 km (9.3 mi) northeast of Almaty,[1] the country's largest city and commercial capital. Almaty International Airport accounts for half of passenger traffic and 68% of cargo traffic to Kazakhstan.[2] At 4,500 metres (14,800 ft), Almaty has the longest runway in Kazakhstan.

Almaty International Airport

Halyqaralyq Almaty Áýejaıy
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerTAV Airports Holding
ServesAlmaty
LocationAlmaty, Kazakhstan (inside city limits)
Hub for
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL681 m / 2,234 ft
Coordinates43°21′19″N 077°02′41″E
Websitealaport.com
Map
ALA/UAAA
Location in Almaty, Kazakhstan
ALA/UAAA
ALA/UAAA (West and Central Asia)
ALA/UAAA
ALA/UAAA (Asia)
ALA/UAAA
ALA/UAAA (Earth)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
05R/23L 4,400 14,436 Concrete
05L/23R 4,500 14,764 Concrete
Statistics (2019)
Passengers6,422,721
Source: AIP Kazakhstan[1]

Owners and management

Almaty International Airport JSC is 100% owned by Venus Airport Investments B.V.,[3] a company registered in Amsterdam.

  • Aibol (Aybol) Anuaruly Bekmukhambetov, President and director[4]
  • Bakhtiyer Kadyrov, Vice President of Finance
  • E. L. Eliseeva, Acting Chief of Economics and Financial Analysis Department
  • Akzholtayev Murat Serikuly, Head of Automatic Systems – Terminal Service
  • Nurimanov Sagdat Yerikbekuly, Head of the First-Aid Post
  • Anuar Saydenov,[5] member of the board of directors, the independent director of the Company
  • Diyar Kanashev, member of the board of directors.

History

Early years

The airport was built in 1935, for all small civil/military flying ships.[6] Up to 1990, it was the part of Kazakh Department of Civil Aviation, and then reorganized into "Alma-Ata Airport" in 1991. Since 1993, it has run as an independent business unit. In 1994, it was reorganized into OJSC "Almaty Airport" and later renamed to JSC Almaty International Airport.

The supersonic transport (SST) Tupolev Tu-144 began service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.

Following a runway reconstruction in 1998, Almaty airport was awarded a CAT II certificate and the status of an international airport.

On 9 July 1999, a fire started in the shashlik kitchen of the airport restaurant. The terminal building burned down in just a few hours, but without major injuries.

Development since the 2000s

Construction of a new terminal was completed in 2004. On 30 September 2008, a second runway was opened with the first departure being a BMI flight bound for London Heathrow. The new runway was also given an ICAO certificate for CAT III landings which will significantly reduce the number of planes diverting to nearby airfields due to low visibility, especially during the winter months. The runway is the longest in central Asia. The new runway can accept all types of aircraft without limitation of take-off weight and operation frequency.

Growth in connectivity is in danger of being compromised by airport infrastructure that is comparatively expensive and not keeping pace with demand growth. IATA is urging the Kazakhstan government to follow ICAO principles and eliminate differential ANSP charges between domestic and international carriers. Currently (2012), it is 18% more expensive to turn around an Airbus A320 in Almaty than at similarly-sized airports in Europe. The differential rises to 43% for a Boeing 767.[7]

There were plans to build a new passenger terminal for international flights with six loading bridges and capacity up to 2,500 passengers per hour in the near future. A developed infrastructure complex consisting of a Marriott Hotel, conference halls, business center, shopping center and cinemas were planned to be within this terminal.

The new terminal was to be located along Kuldja Road to help reduce traffic on the way to the airport. However the terminal's construction was stopped due to managers postponing the project's construction in 2010 because of disagreements with Air Astana's plans for the terminal which was intended to serve Air Astana international flights while the existing terminal would serve domestic destinations. According to the managers, the problems of this plan would be that Air Astana would have faculties operating, and its planes transferring from one end of the runway to another which would create delayed transporting problems for Air Astana; since the runway lines would be busy with the having lack of space of creating new runways. There has been a conclusion to demolish the construction and rebuild the new terminal used for domestic and international flights. There are now plans to build new airport in Kapchagai reservoir which is 48 km away from Almaty.[8]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger
AirlinesDestinations
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Air Arabia Sharjah
Air Astana[9] Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau, Baku, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Beijing–Capital, Bishkek, Delhi, Dubai–International, Dushanbe, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kiev–Boryspil, Kuala Lumpur–International, Kyzylorda, Moscow–Domodedovo,[10] Nur-Sultan, Oral, Oskemen, Paris–Charles de Gaulle (resumes 25 October 2020),[11] Saint Petersburg, Seoul–Incheon, Sharm El Sheikh, Shymkent, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Ürümqi
Seasonal: Antalya, Bodrum
Asiana Airlines Seoul–Incheon
Azerbaijan Airlines Baku
Belavia Minsk
China Southern Airlines Ürümqi
Ellinair Seasonal charter: Thessaloniki
FlyArystan Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau (begins 18 July 2020),[12] Karagandy, Kokshetau, Kostanay, Nur-Sultan, Oral, Pavlodar, Petropavl, Semey, Shymkent, Taraz
flydubai Dubai–International
Hainan Airlines Beijing–Capital
Kam Air Kabul
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Mahan Air Tehran–Imam Khomeini[13]
Nordwind Samara[14]
Pegasus Airlines Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Qatar Airways Doha (begins 2 July 2020)[15][16]
Qazaq Air Nur-Sultan, Shymkent
S7 Airlines Novosibirsk
SCAT Airlines[17] Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau, Balkhash,[18] Haikou,[19] Jeddah,[20] Karagandy, Kokshetau, Kostanay, Kyzylorda,[21] Medina,[20] Mineralnye Vody, Nur-Sultan, Oral, Oskemen, Petropavl, Semey, Shymkent, Taraz, Urzhar,[18] Usharal,[22] Zhezkazgan
Seasonal: Antalya,[23] Sanya
Somon Air Dushanbe
Sunday Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya, Sharm El Sheikh, Malè
Turkish Airlines Istanbul
Seasonal charter: Antalya
Turkmenistan Airlines Ashgabat
Ural Airlines Moscow–Zhukovsky, Yekaterinburg
Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent

Cargo
Check-in hall
Apron view
AirlinesDestinations
AirBridgeCargo Airlines Hong Kong
Cargolux Budapest, Hong Kong, Luxembourg
Cargolux Italia Hong Kong, Milan–Malpensa
Lufthansa Cargo Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Tashkent
MNG Airlines Istanbul–Atatürk
Qatar Airways Cargo Doha,[24] Hong Kong[24]
Silk Way Airlines Zhengzhou
Turkish Cargo Bishkek, Guangzhou, Istanbul–Atatürk, Seoul–Incheon, Nur-Sultan, Shanghai–Pudong, Taipei–Taoyuan[25]
UPS Airlines Cologne/Bonn, Seoul–Incheon, Shanghai–Pudong

Statistics

Annual traffic
Annual Passenger Traffic[26][27][28]
Year Passengers % Change
20103,000,000
20113,665,538 22.2%
20124,003,004 9.2%
20134,323,224 8%
20144,588,866 6%
20154,905,307 6.9%
20164,878,450 0.5%
20175,640,800 15.6%
20185,686,926 1%
20196,422,721 13%

Accidents and incidents
  • 7 July 1980, Aeroflot flight 4227: All 163 occupants of a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, tail number CCCP-85355, lost their lives when the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Alma-Ata Airport. The airplane was due to operate a domestic scheduled Alma-Ata–Simferopol passenger service under the Kazakh division as Flight 4227; the airspeed suddenly dropped because of thermal currents it encountered during climb out, causing the airplane to stall about 5 km (3.1 mi) away, crashing and catching fire.
  • 30 August 1983, Aeroflot Flight 5463, Tupolev Tu-134 crashed on approach to Almaty after a flight from Chelyabinsk where all 90 passengers and crew died.[29]
  • 29 January 2013, SCAT Airlines Flight 760, a Bombardier CRJ-200ER, registration UR-CJ006, crashed during a low-visibility approach into Almaty International Airport that originated from Kokshetau. All 21 occupants died. On 2 March 2015, the Interstate Aviation Committee released their final report stating that during the missed approach, necessitated by weather conditions being below minima, the elevator was deflected to lower the nose instead of raising the nose resulting in a steep dive and impact with the ground. The investigation was unable to determine the cause of the elevator movement but did not find evidence of any system malfunction or external influences.
  • 27 December 2019, twelve people died when Bek Air Flight 2100, Fokker 100, crashed en route to Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, crashing into a building just after takeoff.

See also

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "ISI Intellinews". euromoney.com.
  3. "Loading..." kazworld.info.
  4. "Loading..." kazworld.info.
  5. "Loading..." kazworld.info.
  6. "Almaty International Airport". Airport Technology. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. "Building the 'Silk Road in the Sky' via Kazakhstan". The Gazette of Central Asia. Satrapia. 16 September 2012.
  8. Бурдин, Виктор (16 May 2017). "Почему "Эйр Астана" против нового терминала аэропорта Алматы".
  9. "Air Astana – Timetable". Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  10. Dyson, Molly (21 August 2019). "Air Astana to transfer Moscow flights to Domodedovo". Buying Business Travel. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  11. https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/291381/air-astana-delays-almaty-paris-service-to-oct-2020/
  12. Liu, Jim. "FlyArystan expands domestic network in July/August 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  13. March 2019, Yerbolat Uatkhanov in Tourism on 7 (7 March 2019). "Kazakh, Iranian companies to expand international air routes". Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  14. Liu, Jim (16 April 2019). "Nordwind schedules new Central Asia service in 2Q19". Routesonline. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  15. "Qatar Airways Announces Eight New Destinations at the Kuwait Aviation Show 2020". Qatar Airways. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  16. Liu, Jim. "Qatar Airways NS20 Network changes as of 19MAR20". Routesonline. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  17. "SCAT Airlines – Timetable". Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  18. Liu, Jim. "SCAT aircompany plans various domestic sector resumptions in W19". Routesonline. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  19. "Direct flight links China's resort island, Kazakhstan's Almaty – Xinhua | English.news.cn". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  20. Liu, Jim. "SCAT adds Saudi Arabia service in W19". Routesonline. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  21. Liu, Jim. "SCAT expands Kyzylorda service in June 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  22. Liu, Jim (31 October 2018). "SCAT adds Almaty – Usharal service from late-Oct 2018". Routesonline. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  23. "SCAT adds Almaty – Antalya service from late-Dec 2018". routesonline. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  24. Ltd, DVV Media International. "Qatar Airways Cargo adds another new freighter service". Air Cargo News. Archived from the original on 6 February 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  25. Ltd. 2019, UBM (UK). "Turkish Cargo adds 7 destinations in Jan 2018". Routesonline. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  26. Airport. "files/ARAL/2016" (PDF). kase.kz.
  27. UAAA. "Министерства по инвестициям и развитию РК". facebook.com.
  28. "Аэропорт Алматы в 2018г увеличил пассажиропоток на 1%". interfax.kz. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  29. Harro Ranter (30 August 1983). "ASN Aircraft accident Tupolev 134A CCCP-65129 Alma-Ata".

Media related to Almaty International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.