| Airline: | QAZAQ AIR |
| Iata: | IQ |
| Icao: | QAZ |
| Callsign: | SAMRUK |
| Founded: | 1 April 2015 |
| Commenced: | 27 August 2015 |
| Hubs: | Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport |
| Fleet Size: | 5 |
| Destinations: | 25 |
| Parent: | National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" |
| Headquarters: | Astana, Kazakhstan |
| Key People: | Nauryzbayev Yerkin Anesovich,[1] CEO |
Qazaq Air (Kazakh: Qazaq Eir) is a Kazakh airline operating scheduled services from its main hub in Astana and focuses on domestic flights.[2] It was established to improve the safety and availability of interregional air traffic in Kazakhstan and the border areas of neighboring states.
The spelling of the airline's name reflects the ongoing change in the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin verses.
Qazaq Air was founded in April 2015 by the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna. The airline was launched on 6 July 2015. It commenced operations on 27 August 2015 on the Almaty to Nur-Sultan route.
Qazaq Air served 15 destinations by the end of 2017. It launched its first international route, from Almaty to Issyk-Kul International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, in July 2017.
In June 2018, China Express Airlines (Huaxia Airlines) expressed its readiness to take part in the privatization of Qazaq Air. The carriers signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of their strategic cooperation.
Based on the results of the first half of 2019, the airline reported that it had transported more than 920,000 passengers since the beginning of its operations.
Despite the pandemic and the ban on flights announced in March 2020, Qazaq Air completed the process of relocating its main hub to the capital of the country, Nur-Sultan. It also opened its own website, introduced a new booking and sales system, and launched an electronic ticketing service. These changes resulted in a 14% increase in the number of passengers carried compared to the same period in 2019.
In fall 2020, the IQ Bonus loyalty program for frequent flyers was launched.
278,000 passengers were transported in the 1st half of 2021, an increase of 88% from the same period in 2020.
| Country | City | Airport | Notes | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [3] | |||||
| [4] | |||||
| [5] [6] | |||||
| [7] |
The Qazaq Air fleet is the youngest among the airlines in Kazakhstan.
Due to the increasing passenger traffic and demand for air transportation both within Kazakhstan and in the border regions, the airline plans to increase its fleet by 3 new aircraft.
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J | Y | Total | |||||
| De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 | 5 | - | - | 78 | 78 | ||
| - | 76 | 76 | |||||
| - | 86 | 86 | |||||
| Total | 5 | 0 | |||||