Photo courtesy of aktau-airport.kz
Aktau Airport, located in western Kazakhstan, will soon house a technical maintenance and repair center for aircraft from Russia and Central Asian countries. The development was announced by Kazakhstan’s Minister of Transport, Marat Karabayev, during a session of the Mazhilis (the lower house of parliament), according to Forbes.kz.
The project includes the construction of both a repair base and specialized training centers to ensure the preparation of skilled personnel. According to Karabayev, Turkish companies YDA, Turkish Technic, and ASFAT are set to implement the initiative. “The center (…) will service civilian and military aircraft from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Central Asian countries, including 411 passenger planes from Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan,” the minister detailed.
Karabayev described Aktau Airport as a “promising multimodal aviation hub,” emphasizing its accessibility to all types of transportation and its proximity to Europe—just a three-hour flight away. Following modernization, the airport’s cargo handling capacity is expected to increase to 200,000 tons annually, with a projected yearly turnover of 520 billion tenge ($994 million).
The project comes at a time when Russia’s civil aviation sector has been grappling with unprecedented international sanctions following the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine. For several years, the country has faced restrictions on importing aircraft parts.
