Minister Kassymbek denies crisis in domestic airline industry

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Zhenis Kassymbek, Minister for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan, denied on Monday that increased number of plane crashes could be a signal of the systemwide collapse in the airline industry of the country, Kazinform reports.

Asked about the progress in investigation of the recent aviation accident in Almaty region, Minister Kassymbek insisted that the industry demonstrates positive dynamics and ‘there is no systemwide crisis'.

"The investigation has just started. The Civil Aviation Committee has nothing to do with the investigation of that accident," said the minister at the Regional symposium for training of aviation specialists, making promise he will give a more detailed comment about the incident later.

As a reminder, the An-28 aircraft crashed in Almaty region on October 3 killing all five crew members onboard. Another aircraft incident near Almaty city claimed lives of two people on August 10.

While speaking at the symposium, Minister Kassymbek revealed that there are 96 international routes operating between Kazakhstan and other countries and many new ones appear every year. He said: "Within the framework of the International specialized exhibition EXPO-2017 we opened a lot of new routes from and to Astana. Passenger flow on domestic and international routes has increased by 90% and 30%, respectively."

The Regional symposium for training of aviation specialists and TRAINAIR PLUS IKAO was organized by IKAO and RSE "KazAeroNavigatsiya" and is scheduled to run from October 9 till 11.