NUR-SULTAN: Air Astana is starting to re-open its Central Asian network with flights from Almaty to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, having resumed on September 11, 2020 and to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, beginning on September 20, 2020.
The Tashkent service will initially operate once a week on Thursdays. The Bishkek flight will operate twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays with connections in Almaty for Seoul, Korea, service.
Flights are being operated using Airbus family aircraft with flight times being 1 hour and 30 minutes outbound from Almaty to Tashkent and 55 minutes to Bishkek.
The airline has resumed operation to the cities of Seoul, Dubai, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Kyiv, Istanbul, Antalya, and Tashkent. Flights to Georgia (Tbilisi and Batumi) have been cancelled for July, August, and September due to airspace closure.
Only citizens of the countries that Kazakhstan has resumed direct flights with and those who have permission granted by the Inter-Governmental Commission of Kazakhstan can enter the territory of Kazakhstan during the period of the quarantine restrictions. Authorities previously allowed flights to resume with several countries, including Turkey, China, South Korea, Thailand, Georgia, and Japan. The resumption of further flights will be carried out in phases. No further restrictions on international flights are planned.
The visa-free regime of entry, stay, and departure from Kazakhstan has been suspended for the citizens of a number of foreign countries until November 1, 2020 in accordance with the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
To help with the control of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Air Astana strongly recommends that all passengers on international flights departing Kazakhstan undertake a PCR COVID-19 test within 96 hours of departure (within 48 hours of departure for flights to Korea and Germany).–Agencies