Almaty International Airport

Almaty International Airport^[a] (IATA: ALA, ICAO: UAAA), is the largest international airport of Kazakhstan, surpassing Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport (NQZ) in Astana and the principal hub of Air Astana. It serves Almaty, the largest and most populous city in the country, and, with its surface transport links, much of the rest of the country.

Almaty International Airport Халықаралық Алматы Әуежайы Halyqaralyq Almaty Äuejaiy
IATA: ALA^[1] ICAO: UAAA^[1] WMO: 36870
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Groupe ADP
Operator	TAV Airports Holding
Serves	Almaty
Location	Almaty, Kazakhstan (inside city limits)
Hub for	Air Astana FlyArystan Qazaq Air Sunday Airlines
Focus city for	SCAT Airlines
Elevation AMSL	681 m / 2,234 ft
Coordinates	43°21′19″N 077°02′41″E / 43.35528°N 77.04472°E / 43.35528; 77.04472
Website	alaport.com
Maps
ALA/UAAA Location in Almaty, Kazakhstan Show map of Kazakhstan ALA/UAAA ALA/UAAA (Asia) Show map of Asia ALA/UAAA ALA/UAAA (Eurasia) Show map of Eurasia
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05R/23L 4,400 14,436 Concrete 05L/23R 4,500 14,764 Concrete
Statistics (2023)
Passengers 9,547,136
Source: AIP Kazakhstan^[2]

It is the busiest airport both in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. In 2023, the airport handled 9,547,136 passengers per year for the first time.^[3] In 2022, Almaty International Airport had a total of 7.2 million passengers, 63% of whom were domestic passengers and 37% international passengers.^[4] In 2022, the airport handled 88,400 tonnes cargo making the airport the largest one in Kazakhstan in terms of tonnes of cargo handled that year.

Owners and management

The airport is registered under name of "JSC Almaty International Airport", which is owned by Turkish airport company TAV Airports Holding.

Location

The airport is located approximately 8.1 NM (15.0 km; 9.3 mi) to the north-east of central Almaty, on the outskirts of the city. It is bordered by a mix of open land and residential settlements. The airport is located north of the settlement of Guldala, and north-east of other city districts, including Tbilisskaya and Kolhozshy, all of which lie within the wider region of Almaty.

History

Early years

The airport was built in 1935 for the use of small civil and military aircraft.^[5] Till 1990, it was the part of Kazakh Department of Civil Aviation, and then reorganized into "Alma-Ata Airport" in 1991. Since 1993, it has run as an independent business unit. In 1994, it was reorganized into OJSC "Almaty Airport" and later renamed to JSC Almaty International Airport.

The supersonic transport (SST) Tupolev Tu-144 began service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.

Following a runway reconstruction in 1998, Almaty airport was awarded a CAT II certificate and the status of an international airport.

On 9 July 1999, a fire started in the shashlik kitchen of the airport restaurant. The terminal building burned down in just a few hours, but without major injuries.

Development since 2000

Construction of a new terminal was completed in 2004. On 30 September 2008, a second runway was opened with the first departure being a BMI flight bound for London Heathrow. The new runway was also given an ICAO certificate for CAT III landings which will significantly reduce the number of planes diverting to nearby airfields due to low visibility, especially during the winter months. The runway is the longest in central Asia. The new runway can accept all types of aircraft without limitation of take-off weight and operation frequency.

Growth in connectivity is in danger of being compromised by airport infrastructure that is comparatively expensive and not keeping pace with demand growth. IATA is urging the Kazakhstan government to follow ICAO principles and eliminate differential ANSP charges between domestic and international carriers. Currently (2012), it is 18% more expensive to turn around an Airbus A320 in Almaty than at similarly sized airports in Europe. The differential rises to 43% for a Boeing 767.^[6]

There were plans to build a new passenger terminal for international flights with six loading bridges and capacity up to 2,500 passengers per hour in the near future. A developed infrastructure complex consisting of a Marriott Hotel, conference halls, business center, shopping center and cinemas were planned to be within this terminal.^{[citation needed]}

To reduce roadway traffic, the new international terminal was sited across the airport from the existing terminal, which was to be retained for domestic flights. However, construction was suspended in 2010 over disagreements with Air Astana, which often used the same aircraft for consecutive international and domestic flights. The airline said this site arrangement would require such flights to switch terminals, which would mandate crossing the runways, hindering efficiency and disrupting flight operations. A German consulting group hired by the airport reached the same conclusions and recommended the construction of a combined terminal for both domestic and international flights. In 2017, airport leaders announced that the partially completed international terminal would be demolished, and a new combined terminal would be built.^[7]

On February 17, 2012, in Moscow, at the 32nd session of the Council on Aviation and the Use of Airspace of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), Almaty International Airport was recognized as the best in the CIS and received the prize "For Achievements in the Development of International Airports".^[8]

Protesters seized the airport on 5 January during the 2022 Kazakh unrest, halting flights. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that eight members of Kazakh security forces had been killed and the insurgents had hijacked five airplanes, and he appealed to Russian security forces to retake the facility.^[9][10] On 7 January, TASS reported that Collective Security Treaty Organization troops had occupied the airport and restored order.^{[11][better source needed]}

In May 2022, a proposal was made to Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar by a group of deputies from the People's Party of Kazakhstan to name the airport after Kazakh Soviet communist politician Dinmukhamed Kunaev.^[12]

To accommodate new terminal construction, the historic VIP terminal was dismantled in late 2022 with plans to reconstruct it 420 m (1,380 ft) away.^[13][14]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Aeroflot	Moscow–Sheremetyevo^[15]
Air Arabia	Sharjah
AirAsia X	Kuala Lumpur–International^[16]
Air Astana^[17]	Aktau, Aktobe, Antalya, Astana, Atyrau, Baku, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Beijing–Capital,^[18] Bishkek, Delhi, Dubai–International, Dushanbe, Istanbul, Jeddah,^[19] Kyzylorda, London–Heathrow,^[20] Malè, Oral, Oskemen, Phuket,^[21] Seoul–Incheon, Shymkent, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv (suspended)^[22] Seasonal: Bodrum, Heraklion,^[23] Podgorica^[24] Seasonal charter: Colombo-Bandaranaike,^[25] Hambantota–Mattala,^[26] Sharm El Sheikh
AJet	Ankara^[27]
Asiana Airlines	Seoul–Incheon
Azerbaijan Airlines	Baku
azimuth	Mineralnye Vody, Sochi^[28]
China Southern Airlines	Beijing–Daxing,^[29] Ürümqi,^[30] Xi'an^[31]
FlyArystan	Aktau, Aktobe, Astana, Atyrau,^[32] Delhi,^[33] Karagandy, Kostanay, Kutaisi, Mumbai,^[34] Nukus (begins 3 June 2024),^[35] Omsk, Oral, Pavlodar, Petropavl, Samarqand, Semey, Shymkent, Taraz, Türkıstan,^[36] Yerevan^[37]
flydubai	Dubai–International
flynas	Jeddah^[38]
Hunnu Air	Ulaanbaatar^[39]
IndiGo	Delhi^[40]
Jazeera Airways	Kuwait City^[41]
Kish Air	Tehran–Imam Khomeini
Lufthansa	Frankfurt
Neos	Milan–Malpensa^[42]
Pegasus Airlines	Ankara,^[43] Antalya, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Qatar Airways	Doha^[44]
Qazaq Air	Astana, Bishkek,^[45] Kokshetau, Shymkent, Taraz^[46]
Qeshm Air	Tehran–Imam Khomeini^[47]
Red Wings Airlines	Kazan, Moscow–Zhukovsky, Ufa, Yekaterinburg
Rossiya Airlines	Krasnoyarsk, Saint Petersburg (begins 1 June 2024)^[48]
S7 Airlines	Novosibirsk (resumes 24 May 2024)^[49]
SalamAir	Seasonal: Muscat^[50]
SCAT Airlines^[51]	Aktau, Aktobe, Astana, Atyrau, Balkhash,^[52] Haikou,^[53] Jeddah,^[54] Karagandy, Kostanay, Kyzylorda,^[55] Lahore,^[56] Medina,^[54] Mineralnye Vody, Moscow–Sheremetyevo, Oral, Oskemen, Petropavl, Sanya,^[57] Semey, Shymkent, Taraz, Zhezkazgan Seasonal: Antalya,^[58] Phu Quoc Seasonal charter: Goa–Dabolim,^[59]^[60] Hambantota–Mattala^[61]
Somon Air	Dushanbe^[62]
Sunday Airlines	Seasonal charter: Antalya, Malè, Nha Trang, Sharm El Sheikh
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
Uzbekistan Airways	Nukus (begins 1 June 2024),^[63] Tashkent
VietJet Air	Seasonal: Nha Trang
Wizz Air	Abu Dhabi^[64]
Yakutia Airlines	Seasonal: Irkutsk

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Aerotranscargo^[65]	Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur–International
Atlas Air^[66]	Amsterdam, Chongqing, Liège, Zaragoza, Zhengzhou
Cargolux^[67]	Luxembourg
Cargolux Italia^[68]	Milan–Malpensa
Qatar Cargo^[69]	Doha, Hong Kong
SF Airlines^[citation needed]	Ezhou, Karaganda, Lanzhou, Liège, Yantai
Silk Way West Airlines^[70]	Baku
Turkish Cargo^[71]	Astana, Bishkek, Guangzhou, Istanbul, Seoul–Incheon, Shanghai–Pudong, Taipei–Taoyuan
UPS Airlines^[citation needed]	Cologne/Bonn, Seoul–Incheon, Shanghai–Pudong
YTO Cargo Airlines	Xi'an

Statistics

 

Air Astana maintains its hub at Almaty International Airport.

 

A Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-86 at Almaty International Airport in 1996

 

Check-in hall

Annual traffic

Annual passenger traffic at ALA airport. See Wikidata query.

Annual passenger traffic^{[72][73][non-primary source needed][74]}

Year	Passengers	% Change
2010	3,000,000
2011	3,665,538	22.2%
2012	4,003,004	9.2%
2013	4,323,224	8%
2014	4,588,866	6%
2015	4,905,307	6.9%
2016	4,878,450	0.5%
2017	5,640,800	15.6%
2018	5,686,926	1%
2019	6,422,721	13%
2020	3,669,668	42.9%
2021	6,103,657	66.3%
2022	7,230,156	18.5%
2023	9,547,136	32.0%

Accidents and incidents

• 7 July 1980: Aeroflot Flight 4225, a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, aircraft registration CCCP-85355, crashed with the loss of all 156 passengers and 10 crew shortly after takeoff from Alma-Ata Airport. Investigators found that the airspeed suddenly dropped because of a downdraft the aircraft encountered during climb out, causing it to stall, crash about 5 km (3.1 mi) from the airport, and catch fire.^[75]
• 30 August 1983: Aeroflot Flight 5463, a Tupolev Tu-134, crashed on approach to Almaty after a flight from Chelyabinsk; all 90 passengers and crew died.
• 29 January 2013: SCAT Airlines Flight 760, a Bombardier CRJ-200ER, crashed during a low-visibility approach into Almaty International. All 21 occupants died. Investigators found that during the missed approach necessitated by the inclement weather, the elevator was deflected to lower the nose instead of raising the nose, resulting in a steep dive and impact with the ground; they were unable to determine the cause of the elevator movement but did not find evidence of any system malfunction or external influences.
• 27 December 2019: Thirteen people died when Bek Air Flight 2100, a Fokker 100, crashed en route to Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, crashing into a building just after takeoff.
• 13 March 2021: An Antonov An-26 operating for the Border Service of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan crashed on landing; four occupants died and the two survivors reportedly suffered serious injuries. The cause of the accident is under investigation.^[76][77]

See also

• List of airports in Kazakhstan
• List of the busiest airports in the former USSR

Notes

1. Kazakh: Халықаралық Алматы Әуежайы, romanized: Halyqaralyq Almaty Äuejaiy; Russian: Международный аэропорт Алматы.

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External links

  Media related to Almaty International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Accident history for ALA at Aviation Safety Network
• Current weather for UAAA at NOAA/NWS