Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport ( kk, Халықаралық Нұрсұлтан Назарбаев әуежайы, Halyqaralyq Nūrsūltan Nazarbaev Äuejaiy, ; russian: Международный аэропорт Нурсултан Назарбаев), formerly Astana International Airport, is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

in the

Akmola Region Akmola Region ( kz, Ақмола облысы, translit=Aqmola oblysy; russian: Акмолинская область, Akmolinskaya oblast) is a centrally located region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Kokshetau. The national capital, Astana, is en ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. It is the primary

serving Astana, the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

city of

. The airport is the second-busiest international air passenger gateway into

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

(after Almaty International Airport), the 13th busiest airport in the Post-Soviet states and the second-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic in

, with 5,099,391 passengers in 2019. It is located in the Yesil administrative subdivision of Astana, south-east of the city centre. The airport features two passenger terminals and one runway as well as cargo and maintenance facilities. Terminal 2 was designed by the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. It serves as the primary hub of

's flag carrier – Air Astana, and is the primary operating base for SCAT Airlines,

Qazaq Air Qazaq Air ( kk, Qazaq Eir) is a Kazakh airline, which operates scheduled services from its main hub in Nur-Sultan and focuses on domestic flights. QAZAQ AIR is an interregional airline established by Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund JSC on ...

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

–

FlyArystan FlyArystan is a low-cost airline based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is the wholly owned low cost subsidiary of Air Astana, the country's leading airline. FlyArystan's foundation was approved by Air Astana's joint shareholders, Samruk-Kazyna Sovereig ...

and was also formerly a hub for Starlines Kazakhstan and Tselinograd OAO. The facility opened in 1931 as ''Akmolinsk Airport'' then, as the city changed its name, renamed as ''Tselinograd Airport'' and then as ''Astana International Airport''. With a government decree, the airport was renamed Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport as a tribute to the first President. On June 8, 2020, the airport officially changed its three-character

IATA airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the ...

from TSE to NQZ. It has been recognised as the 'Best Regional Airport in Central Asia and

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

' at the

Skytrax Skytrax (originally known as Inflight Research Services) is a United Kingdom–based consultancy which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site. Services Skytrax conducts research for commercial airlines, as well as taking surveys ...

World Airport Awards 2022.

History

The airport was built in 1930, three kilometers from

Akmolinsk Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, thou ...

(now – Astana) within the area of today's modern architectural tower of

Baiterek russian: Байтерек , former_names = , alternate_names = Bayterek , image = Central Downtown Astana 2.jpg , image_size = 256px , alt = , caption = Baiterek Tower , ma ...

. There was a square field for aircraft take-off and landing, an adobe 8-room station with a small waiting hall, a two-room house for pilots, and fuel storage on the airport grounds. In December 1931, the first airfield of Astana was built on the outskirts of the town and was developed further after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Regular air traffic was established between Semipalatinsk and Akmolinsk (day of enterprise establishment). During times of flooding, the aerodrome was closed. Communication between the aerodrome and the city was by phone, ferry (there was no bridge over Ishim River), and footpath. In the first few years, the air traffic was ad-hoc by character, with loose timetables, such as "Aircraft departure on Monday morning" or "On Wednesday at sunrise". Transportation of passengers, mail, and cargo was carried out by Kalinin K-4,

Kalinin K-5 The Kalinin K-5 was an airliner produced in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, built in larger quantities than any other Soviet airliner of its time, with some 260 aircraft constructed. It was a conventional, high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with a ...

Polikarpov R-5 The Polikarpov R-5 (russian: Р-5) was a Soviet reconnaissance bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was the standard light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft of the Soviet Air Force for much of the 1930s, while also being used heavily as a civilian l ...

Petlyakov Pe-2 The Petlyakov Pe-2 (russian: Петляков Пе-2) was a Soviet twin-engine dive bomber used during World War II. One of the outstanding tactical attack aircraft of the war,Ethell 1996, p. 152. it also proved successful as a heavy fighter, as ...

aircraft. Regular flights were established in 1934, with the following routes: Alma-Ata – Karaganda – Akmolinsk –

Atbasar Atbasar ( kk, Атбасар, ''Atbasar'') is a town in Aqmola Region of the northern Kazakhstan. It was founded in 1845. Atbasar is the 44th biggest city in Kazakhstan. Atbasar lies at an altitude of 282 meters above sea level. Population: Cli ...

– Kostanay – Sverdlovsk. Karaganda –

Petropavl Petropavl ( kk, Петропавл, Petropavl ) or Petropavlovsk () is a city on the Ishim River in northern Kazakhstan close to the border with Russia. It is the capital of the North Kazakhstan Region. Population: 218,956. The city is also kno ...

ovsk –

Korgalzhyn Korgalzhyn ( kz, Қорғалжын, ''Qorğaljyn'') is a village in the Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. It serves as the administrative center of Korgalzhyn District. The Nura River slowly flows around the selo. It is situated 120 km south-west of ...

– Akmolinsk. At the beginning of 1946, the first group of Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft arrived in Akmolinsk for regular service. The group belonged to a Karaganda aviation enterprise. The following routes were opened for passenger and mail transportation: Akmolinsk –

– Aksu – Astrakhanka –

Balkashino Balkashino ( kk, Балкашин, ''Balkaşin'') is a village in northern-central Kazakhstan. It is the seat of Sandyktau District in Aqmola Region Akmola Region ( kz, Ақмола облысы, translit=Aqmola oblysy; russian: Акмолинс ...

(settlements of Akmolinsk region). The operations division was organized consisting of two people. In 1946, aviation began to render services for the national economy – medical aviation. From 1947 to 1948, a fleet of three Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft was formed at the Akmolinsk airport base. This fleet was part of an air group that was based in Karaganda. The airport was equipped with modern equipment (for the time), construction development has started: a Finnish house for a radio station, three buildings and a garage were built. The total number of staff numbered 40 to 50 people. The airport began servicing heavier types of aircraft such as

Lisunov Li-2 The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Khimki, Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, at Tashkent Aviation Pro ...

in addition to light aircraft. On November 4, 1963, Tselinograd Airport (formerly known as – Akmolinsk) accepted the first

Ilyushin Il-18 The Ilyushin Il-18 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-18; NATO reporting name: Coot) is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known and most durable Soviet aircraft of its era. The Il-18 was one of the world ...

aircraft in the new terminal, located 18 kilometers from the city. In December 1963, Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft began to operate regular flights. The airport terminal was at a building stage, therefore the adapted two-story building served as the air terminal, where the air traffic control service had been located. In February 1966, the new air terminal was transferred into operation. In June of the same year, all services of united aviagroup relocated to the new airport. By 1969, the aircraft park of Tselinograd aviagroup was replenished with the first Antonov An-24 aircraft. With the arrival of the Antonov An-24, the volume of passenger, mail, and cargo transportation sharply increased. People began to fly to many cities of the former Soviet Union. In 1975, the Tupolev Tu-154 first landed in the airport. After that, regular flights by Tupolev Tu-154 on the Alma-Ata – Tselinograd –

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

route were started. The historical mark for

Akmola Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, thou ...

( Astana) aviators was the change of the capital in 1998. Airdrome reconstruction begun and finished in a relatively short time: the runway with artificial covering was extended for about 3500 meters; the taxiway and apron were also expanded. Lighting systems and radio navigation equipment were replaced. The VIP building was constructed, and the airport complex was reconstructed. On February 2, 2005, a large-scale international airport reconstruction project was completed with the grand opening of the new 25,000 square-meter passenger terminal. The number of check-in counters was increased to 24 along with two luggage straps. Currently, the Terminal 2 is used to service domestic flights. On November 19, 2015, the grand opening of the 2,400 square-meter Business Aviation Terminal took place. The BAT area has a 200-passenger per hour capacity. The terminal building housed a lounge bar, a conference hall, rooms for negotiations, convenience for passengers with children, a duty-free shop, there are 52 parking spaces for guests. Within the framework of the Infrastructure Development Program, a new passenger terminal for international flights was built in 2017. A new terminal of 47,000 square meters adds six new aircraft parking lots with landing sleeves and four bus landing routes to the airport infrastructure and also includes a variety of technologies and processes designed to improve the quality of service at the airport. "N" stands for Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, as well as the name of the Kazakh capital of Astana. "QZ" is an acronym for Qazaqstan according to the new version of Kazakh alphabet based on the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

Facilities

The airport is the primary hub of Air Astana and is a primary operating base for SCAT Airlines,

–

. It has two passenger terminals (T1 and T2), a business aviation terminal as well as cargo and maintenance facilities. In 2019, it served 5,099,391 passengers, an increase of 12.1% compared to 2018, making it the second-busiest airport in Kazakhstan. The busiest single destination in passenger numbers is

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

Runway

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. The airport has a single active

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

in use designated 04/22 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface measuring . The airport is equipped with a Category IIIA (both directions) Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to guide landing aircraft safely under very poor weather conditions and also allowing planes to land in low visibility conditions, such as

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

. The airport is able to accommodate jets the size of the Il-76,

Antonov An-124 Ruslan The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...

, and

Boeing 747-400F The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...

. It can also accept light aircraft and helicopters of all types.

Terminals

There are separate terminal buildings for domestic and international flights. Both terminals are adjacent, sharing a single car park and have a connecting corridor for transit passengers.

T1 – International Terminal

The new international terminal (labelled "T1") opened in June 2017. Plans for the new terminal show 5–6 new departure gates complementing the gates in the previously existing terminal building. 47,000 sq. M. and completed construction in time for the EXPO 2017, and took the role of T1 – International Terminal. The new terminal adds 6 new aircraft parking lots with landing sleeves and 4 bus landing routes to the Airport infrastructure, and also includes a variety of technologies and processes designed to improve the quality of service at the Airport. The new terminal has a public catering area of 1000 square meters, retail outlets occupy 1,300 square meters.

T2 – Domestic Terminal

The concept of T2 - terminal building has been designed by the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. With the opening of the new international terminal, the old terminal (now labelled "T2") is now dedicated to departures and arrivals of domestic flights. T2 - was the original and only terminal when the airport was reconstructed in 2005. On 2 February 2005, the grand opening of the T2 passenger terminal of the airport took place. The terminal area is more than 25 thousand square meters. Number of check-in counters - 24, 2 luggage straps. The design of the airport is the fusion of eastern and western traditions. The building has five floors, panoramic elevators, escalators, aerobridges, lounges and the system of automatic check-in for passengers, airport shops, restaurants, cafes, a pharmacy, a call-center, Wi-Fi and other facilities.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled, seasonal and charter flights to and from Astana:

Cargo

Statistics

Passenger figures

Busiest routes

Almaty International Airport was the most popular domestic route with 144 weekly flights.

Aviation accidents

On June 17, 1967, an

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...

Li-2 (CCCP-71220) operating from Tselinograd Airport (now Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport), in Astana to Karaganda airport (now Sary-Arka) stalled and crashed onto a runway at Tselinograd, killing 2 of its 3 crew, and 7 of its 31 passengers. On October 4, 1989, an

An-24 (CCCP-46525), skidded off a runway on approach to Tselinograd Airport due to its pilots landing at excessive speed. After landing, the plane crashed into a pillar of the airport's fence. The plane was written off as damaged beyond repair but none of the 4 pilots or 48 passengers were injured. On December 25, 2012, an An-72 of the

Kazakhstan Border Guards Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to Kazakhstan–Russia border, the north and ...

which had taken off from Astana International airport crashed short of the runway at Shymkent International Airport due to low visibility weather and technical malfunctions with the aircraft's barometer. All 27 people aboard the plane were killed.

Access

Public transport

Bus

No. 10 and 12 municipal bus lines connects the airport with the city centre of Astana. Service is available from 06:00 to 22:00 and run from the airport (just outside the airport) to the city center and vice versa with intermediate stops in between. The single fare is Tenge symbol

150.

Car and taxi

The airport is located on the Regional Road P3, about 16.7 kilometers (12 mi) from the city center and about 25 minutes drive, depending on traffic. There is extensive car and motorcycle parking space available. Taxis are also available directly outside the terminal building at the airport parking lot (

Yandex.Taxi Yandex.Taxi (Russian: Яндекс.Такси) is an international company owned by Russian IT-giant Yandex and that operates taxi aggregation and food tech businesses across Russia, CIS, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The compan ...

and

inDriver inDrive (previously known as inDriver), is an international ride-hailing service with more than 150 million downloads operating in 47 countries. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, it is the second largest ridesharing and taxi app world ...

). Many taxi companies offer a flat-rate for to/from Airport trips (the rate is usually Tenge symbol

1,650), booked via

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

References

External links

Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport
(official site) * * * {{authority control Airports in Kazakhstan

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Airports established in 1963 1963 establishments in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic