The Air Astana group's international transfer and transit business grew by 82% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

This was told to Kursiv in an interview by Ibrahim Zhanlyel, chief executive officer of the Air Astana group of companies.

According to him, the company is simultaneously developing two related areas: international transit traffic through Kazakhstan and inbound tourism.

"We are developing both inbound tourism and transit traffic. If we talk about the transit business, the volume of our international transit traffic grew by 82% compared with the same period last year," Zhanlyel said.

Air Astana seeks to strengthen Kazakhstan's role as a regional aviation hub. The company carries passengers of its international route network through the country, including those travelling to the states of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

"This is, of course, very useful. We are glad that we are strengthening Kazakhstan's position as a leading transit hub for passengers across our entire route network travelling through Kazakhstan to the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus," the head of the group noted.

The development of transit allows the airline to increase passenger traffic not only through domestic demand and direct trips to Kazakhstan. The international route network makes it possible to attract passengers for whom Kazakh airports become intermediate points on the way to other states of the region.

At the same time, the group expects to increase the number of foreign tourists for whom Kazakhstan is the final destination of their journey.

"It is no less important for us to attract tourists from other countries of our route network — these are the countries of the Persian Gulf, India, China, Korea and Turkey," he said.

According to the head of the group, the effect of inbound tourism is not limited to the airline's own revenues. The spending of foreign guests is distributed among hotels, catering establishments, tourism companies, trade organisations, taxi services and other participants in the economy.

"Every tourist we bring brings very valuable revenue to our company. But at the same time, he creates a huge multiplier effect for hotels, restaurants, tourism companies, shops, taxi drivers and other participants in Kazakhstan's economy," Zhanlyel emphasised.

Thus, the development of the international route network can simultaneously support the aviation sector, the hospitality industry, trade, transport services and the tourism business. An increase in the inbound flow also allows Kazakhstan to receive more income from the stay of foreign citizens inside the country.

Ibrahim Zhanlyel called attracting transit passengers and foreign tourists one of the missions of the Air Astana group.

"This is the mission that we intend to fulfil. We are observing very positive trends and would like this area to develop even more actively," he said.

The growth in transit traffic is taking place against the backdrop of a difficult situation in the international aviation market. According to Zhanlyel, during the year the group had to take into account the consequences of regional conflicts and high oil prices, as well as change the distribution of carrying capacity between destinations.

In particular, Air Astana was forced to redirect about 15% of its capacity from the routes of the Persian Gulf countries to other markets.

"It really was a difficult year. The situation was affected by regional conflicts, oil prices were very high. At the same time, we were forced to redistribute a fairly significant part of our carrying capacity from the Persian Gulf countries to other regions," the chief executive officer of the group said.

At the same time, the company retained its plans for the further development of the international network. Zhanlyel believes that the results achieved demonstrated the group's ability to adapt quickly to changes in external conditions.

"We have once again proved the flexibility and resilience of the Air Astana group. We redistributed carrying capacity and continued to develop our international route network," he said.

The 82% growth in international transit became one of the group's main operational results in the second quarter. The further development of this area will depend on the expansion of the route network, the efficiency of connections and Kazakhstan's ability to attract both transit passengers and tourists who stay in the country.