On May 22, 2023; Fly Arystan started its twice a week service to Delhi from Shymkent, which is the third largest city in Kazakhstan. Surprising as it may seem, no Indian carrier currently operates to any of the five Central Asian states. That is now changing. IndiGo has announced the launch of its maiden flights to Central Asia with the first of the lot being to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan and erstwhile capital of the country.
The airline will deploy its A320s on the Delhi – Almaty sector and begin with thrice a week service effective Sep 23, 2023. The timings are as below
6E1801 DEL2050 – 0105 (+1)ALA
6E1802 ALA0205 – 0510DEL
Flights from Delhi operate on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from Almaty
IndiGo has returned to all its domestic destinations post pandemic but has not been able to restart all the international stations due to regulations amongst other things.
Key numbers and competition
Air Astana currently flies eight times a week to Delhi from Almaty. Pre-pandemic, Air Astana operated 10x weekly from Almaty, 3x weekly from Astana and had started services to Mumbai. The Delhi operations were tweaked based on the demand. I have been eagerly studying the Air Astana network and you can read that here.
Data released by DGCA shows that Air Astana carried 10,992 passengers to India and 13,141 passengers from India in the first quarter of 2023. These numbers stood at over 17,000 pre-COVID.
The Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between the two countries allows for 21 weekly services each way.
While trade has been increasing between the two countries, India’s exports to Kazakhstan are less than half a percent of India’s total exports and imports are just 0.03% of total imports. The main goods which are exported to Kazakhstan from India are Electrical Machines, Pharma products, Nuclear parts, Coffee, Tea and Spices while India imports Minerals, Natural Pearls and Sulphur from Kazakhstan. With exports of 349,939 lakhs and imports of 161,848 lakhs; Kazakhstan is India’s largest trading partner in Central Asia.
Visa
Until a few years ago, getting a visa to travel to Kazakhstan was a pain. This involved getting an invitation from Kazakhstan amongst other things. It also needed a tourist to report to tourist police and register while in the country. Most Central Asian countries have recognized the need to be tourist friendly and with change in regime have become more liberal. A recent report indicated that Kazakhstan has become visa free for Indians.
Almaty, Kazakhstan and the aviation significance
Almaty was known as Alma Ata and was the seat of power in the Soviet times and later as independent Kazakhstan until it moved north to what was then known as Akmola and later named Astana. (Briefly it was also named Nur Sultan). Almaty is the largest city and the commercial hub in Kazakhstan and is nestled amidst picturesque mountains. Almaty is also believed to be derived from the Kazakh word for apples. The fruit originated in what is modern day Kazakhstan.
The Almaty airport was developed in the 1930s. Among other things of significance, Almaty was the first airport in the network of Tu-144, the Soviet Supersonic transport aircraft. It is here that the aircraft was regularly deployed with mail flights before starting commercial passenger services.
Network Thoughts
For an airline the size of IndiGo, this was the much needed expansion. It may have come in earlier than now, but the prohibition of use of Pakistani airspace after the Indian Air Force destroyed terrorist camps in Balakot; engine issues of Pratt & Whitney and COVID – possibly delayed the foray. The airline will look at group tours, businessmen, traders and connecting traffic.
IndiGo flies to Sharjah, Bangkok, Colombo, Dubai, Istanbul, Male, Phuket, Jeddah, Kuwait and Doha – amongst all the destinations which are connected to Almaty. Not all of these are available from Delhi and there are a few more which would be available from Delhi for connections. The current timings, support connections to Dhaka, Dubai, Kathmandu amongst others. In addition to this, the domestic connectivity from all major cities in India is possible.
What next? In the current environment, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the most promising amongst the five Central Asian countries. Eventually, IndiGo could look at daily flights to Almaty and Tashkent and I don’t see the airline expanding to either Astana, Dushanbe, Bishkek or Ashgabat.
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