EU will not include Kazakhstan’s airlines in its air safety black list

On June 1, the Air Safety Committee of the European Commissions published its official verdict concerning aviation authorities and airline companies in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development.

Kairbek Uskenbayev, head of the ministry, said that aviation authorities of all 27 EU member states have decided not to put any restrictions on Kazakhstan’s airlines that fly to Europe and not to put Kazakhstan on the EU Air Safety List.

Kazakhstan was on that list once. In 2009 an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) showed a low rate of ICAO standards implementation (47%) in the country. As a result, the European Commission banned Kazakhstan’s airlines from flying to Europe. The only exception was Air Astana, although the company was prohibited from either geographical expansion of its destinations or buying new aircraft.

Last year, right after the crash of the aircraft of Bek Air, the European Commission raised the air safety issue in Kazakhstan once again. Kazakhstan’s air authority responded with a detailed action plan. When the country showed its willingness to fix all those problems, the European Commission agreed to abstain from any actions.

In general, in 2021, Kazakhstan’s air safety rate was 15% higher than the global ICAO rate on average. The agency has raised its air safety mark for Kazakhstan to 84%, which is similar to many European countries such as the Netherlands (87%), Belgium (87%), Portugal (87%), Czech Republic (87%), Latvia (86%), Denmark (85%), Iceland (84%), Poland (84%), Slovenia (82%) and Cyprus (82%).