UPDATE: Kazakhstan asks airlines to fly to capital and not biggest city

Airline Industry Information, Dec 10, 2004

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

(Corrects spelling and position of Nursultan Nazarbayev.)

The oil-rich ex-Soviet state of Kazakhstan has asked foreign airlines not to fly to the country's biggest city and fly to its capital city instead.

Government officials denied that it was more interested in prestige than commercial sense despite the fact that Almaty was the country's capital city until 1997, has a population of 1.2m people and is Kazakhstan's commercial hub. The country's new capital Astana is undergoing a multi-billion USD facelift and the government is trying to attract new airlines to the new international terminal it is building at the city's airport.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has recently criticised ministers for spending too much time in Almaty and Western embassies have still to move to Astana. Transport and Communications Ministry officials said that the request was not an ultimatum and not flying to Astana does not mean that companies will be asked to leave, reports Reuters.

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