Air Astana has resumed flights from Almaty to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.

The airline says the Tashkent service initially operates once a week on Thursdays and the Bishkek flight will operate twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays, providing good connections in Almaty for Seoul service. The fights are operated using Airbus family aircraft, with flight times being 1 hour and 30 minutes outbound from Almaty to Tashkent and 55 minutes to Bishkek.

The national carrier of Kazakhstan, which recently launched a route between Frankfurt and Almaty, operates domestic and international flights from its hubs in Nur-Sultan and Almaty. Air Astana also operates a low-cost airline, FlyArystan, which continues to develop its domestic regional network by opening new routes across the country.

The airline advises that only citizens of the countries that Kazakhstan has resumed direct flights with and those who have permission granted by the Inter-Governmental Commission of Kazakhstan can enter the territory of Kazakhstan due to the quarantine restrictions. Updates in health and quarantine regulations are available here.

According to the carrier, it became the first airline from Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe to be awarded the prestigious 4-Star rating by Skytrax at the World Airline Awards in 2012 and was also named ‘The Best Airline in Central Asia and India’ that year.

The airline began operations in May 2002 and its fleet consists of Boeing, Embraer and Airbus Family aircraft, including Airbus A321LR.