Almaty International Airport
Almaty International Airport - is the busiest airport in Central Asia. It serves Almaty, Kazakhstan It's located 15km Northeast from Central Almaty. In 2014, the airport handled 4,5 million passengers. International nonstop destinations from Almaty:
Asia: Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushanbe, Ashgabat, Tehran, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi, Sharjah, New Delhi, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Kuala-Lumpur, Urumqi.
Europe(including Russian Federation): Prague, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Samara, Novosibirsk, Istanbul, Baku, Tbilisi, Antalya (seasonal).
IATA/ICAO code: ALA/UAAA
At 2014 there were no new destinations opened because the present terminal is already full of flights and is overcrowded. Present terminal has 4 jet bridges, and 2 of them which are only for International Flights. During the night time sometimes carriers use another two jet bridges which are mainly for usage of domestic flights, because there are no domestic flights at night, and you would probably guess that especially from 3 to 8 am time in ALA is one of the busiest times. The airport needs another terminal so that Almaty Airport could increase traffic and route network. There are no flights operated with duration of more than 8 hours. The longest destination from Almaty today is Kuala-Lumpur. In 2007, the government thought about building a new international terminal at Almaty Airport, so they had already started building it, but the world crisis in 2009 unfortunately hit Kazakhstan's economy as well, so the government had to froze the construction. Almaty Airport is a hub for the national flag carrier of Kazakhstan, Air Astana, which flies almost to all of these destinations, except for routes in Europe. Also, there are private and smaller airlines than Air Astana such as SCAT Airlines and Bek Air. They operate only domestic flights out of Almaty Airport. Recently, by the government there was also a low-cost airline created, which has its base in ALA. It is called Qazaq Air. Yet the airline is ruled by government, but the government plans to share the interest.
The current terminal was built in 2004, and no one expected that just in 5 years it will already become small. But let's hope that the government will make decisions as soon as possible. Almaty is a quick-growing city, so there must be a good transportation system.
At the present time, you can get to/from Almaty Airport to/from Almaty city by bus or a taxi.
About Almaty
About Kazakhstan
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