MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan Airlines may pull out of a deal to buy two Boeing Dreamliners, media reported. Reports said Azerbaijan Airlines had been due to take the first Dreamliner in June or July this year but that it was having second thoughts. Boeing has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan Airways is negotiating joining the Sky Team alliance whose members include Air France, Alitalia, three Chinese airlines and others, media reported. The Uzbek national airline has been pushing hard to boost its profile and routes over the past few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
APRIL 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev officially opened a new terminal at Baku airport. The new terminal will double passenger capacity at Baku airport to 6m. The Azerbaijani authorities are pouring money into Baku, which they want to beautify and modernise.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkmen government has ordered another batch of Boeing passenger planes, media reported. Turkmenistan Airlines is modernising and, according to earlier reports, bought three long-range Boeing 777-200. The latest order is for three more Boeing 737-800.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s aviation sector received a boost when the national carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 777 passenger plane and also opened a new terminal at Ashgabat international airport, media reported.
The Boeing is the first of two on order for Turkmenistan Airlines. Turkmenistan has pledged to boost both its international and domestic air services.
Turkmenistan’s Boeing 777-200LR is a long-range plane that can carry between 315 and 450 passengers, depending on the seating arrangements.
The specific 200LR model entered service in 2006 and was a longer range version of previous Boeing 777 models. In 2006 it had the longest range of any commercial passenger plane and was dubbed the “Worldliner” because it could, theoretically, connect any two airports.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The impact of Kazakhstan’s 20% currency devaluation last month is beginning to filter through to business.
Kazakh senator Mikhail Bortnik said that unless JSC International Airport Aktau could restructure its dollar-denominated debt, it would go bankrupt.
JSC International Airport Aktau, which under a deal with Mangistau regional government is owned by Turkish company ATM until 2025, has re-built Aktau airport’s passenger terminal and runway over the last few years.
It is now Kazakhstan’s third busiest airport, behind Almaty and Astana, and hosts flights from Baku, Kiev, Moscow and central Europe.
But after February’s tenge devaluation the $47m debt that Mangistau regional government took on to re-build the airport from the state-run Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) has become 20% more expensive to service.
The problem for the DBK is that if it agrees to restructure the Aktau airport debt, it may have to restructure several other company debts too.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz government has drawn up a six year plan to improve its aviation safety, media reported. Media quoted Erkin Isakov, head of the civil aviation authority, listing the problems. “Insufficient funding, low professional level of staff, employee turnover, discrepancy in standards, as well as an imperfect legal framework,” Mr Iskaov was quoted as saying.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has approved plans to build a new airport outside Almaty to serve as an international hub, media reported. The current airport at Almaty is too small to handle Kazakhstan’s ambitions of becoming a transit point for people flying between Europe and Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration handed Azerbaijan a category 1 ranking, allowing Azerbaijani aircraft to fly to the US. The decision is an important boost for Azerbaijan’s aviation industry. It had previously been banned from flying to the US.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Building an airline with a bold livery and a list of international destinations is a tried and test way of boosting national prestige for emerging countries.
Turkmenistan, is appears, is embracing this tactic.
According to a report on the centralasiaonline.com website, Turkmenistan is eager to boost the presence of Turkmenistan Airlines.
Turkmenistan Airlines now flies to 17 foreign cities. This should increase to 27 by the end of the year, centralasiaonline.com quoted a Turkmenistan Airlines official as saying.
It also plans to boost domestic air travel too. It has bought 20 planes with 100 passenger capacity each to use on domestic routes and ordered five more regional airports to be built.
As well as being a useful way to improve the awareness of your country and to promote a brand, Turkmenistan’s airline extension may have a positive impact on travel for both ordinary people and also for business and investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
