Astana and New Delhi become closer through direct flights

New Delhi [India], July 2 (ANI): The capitals of Kazakhstan and India - Astana and New Delhi - will become closer from Sunday (July 2, 2017), with the start of a direct Air Astana flight between the two cities.

The city of New Delhi thus becomes the ninth consecutive foreign metropolis to be connected directly by flight to the International Airport NursultanNazarbayev in Astana.

The flight will be performed at a frequency of thrice a week on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. In the near future, it is planned to increase the number of flights in this direction up to five times a week. The new international flight is designed to realize the execution of the order of Kazakhstan's President NursultanNazarbayev to increase the transit passenger traffic across the country by four times by 2020. Over the past seven years, transit air passenger traffic has increased 20 times.

One of the most promising destinations for transit passengers is the route from India to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries via Kazakhstan.

The flight between Astana and New Delhi will be in addition to the Almaty-Delhi-Almaty flight operated by Air Astana since 2004. This new flight will also serve to stimulate business activity for the development of the newly created International Financial Center Astana (IFAC).

The opening of this international flight was preceded by the joint work between Air Astana, the Kazakh foreign affairs, aviation and investment and development ministries, and Indian aviation authorities.

On June 30, the President of the Air Astana Mr. Foster, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of Ministry for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan Mr. Lastaev, Ambassador of Kazakhstan in India Bulat Sarsenbayev and Charge de Affairs of the Embassy of India in Kazakhstan Mr. Gururaj addressed the media in Astana in this regard and the modalities involved to realize this goal and achievement.

It was officially announced that on July 2, 2017, within the framework of increasing the availability of the international specialized exhibition EXPO-2017, a new international flight will open on the Astana-Delhi-Astana route of Air Astana. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI