Kazakhstan successfully passes ICAO safety audit
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstan successfully passed a safety audit of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and confirmed high level of compliance with international standards.
“The level of compliance of the Civil Aviation Committee under the Kazakh Ministry for Investment and Development with the requirements of ICAO officially amounted to 83 percent, which is 21 percent better than the audit indicator of 2009, which was 62 percent. The improved indicator of Kazakhstan exceeds by 11 percent the world average level of 72 percent,” according to the committee’s message.
Audit conducted by ICAO is one of the most important objective tools for assessing the security system of civil aviation of the state.
Low assessment on the results of the ICAO audit may lead to serious negative consequences such as restrictions on flights by other countries.
The aviation security audit is a comprehensive check on the airport security system. The expert evaluation was conducted on 480 key issues in November 2017.
The previous audit of 2009 consisted of 299 questions, which clearly demonstrates the toughening of ICAO requirements.
“It has become much more difficult for countries to undergo ICAO audits, and in this regard, the high level of Kazakhstan's assessment by ICAO experts is becoming even more significant,” the message said.
As a result of the audit of 2017, Kazakhstan joined the group of countries that occupy a leading position in the world in terms of aviation security.
Earlier, the Civil Aviation Committee announced the launch of a number of international flights in Kazakhstan in 2018. Moreover, the committee will conduct 59 certifications and 434 inspections of air transport enterprises in 2018 in order to control the safety of flights.
In 2017, ten new international routes were opened, including by foreign carriers (Finn Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Wizz Air, Air China) in direction of Warsaw, Budapest, Helsinki, Beijing and Batumi as well as Kazakhstan airlines to destinations of Xi'an, Kiev, Minvody, Yerevan and Delhi.
At the same time, 20 flights a week were added to the current flight in eleven destinations, that is to Bishkek, Istanbul, Beijing, London, Seoul, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, St. Petersburg, and Tashkent.
There have been several crashes including the one on October 3, 2017, that killed five people in Kazakhstan. At the time, an Antonov An-28 ambulance plane fell near Almaty. On August 10, a training aircraft Tecnam 2002 collapsed in the Almaty region and two people were killed.
A similar catastrophe occurred on July 25 as a two-seater private plane crashed. As a result, a pilot was killed and a passenger was injured. Almost a month before that, the Yak-12 aircraft, owned by the airline Kazavia, crashed, and two people died.
Kazakhstan has airports in Shimkent, Atbasar, Karaganda, Kyzyl-Orda, Balkhash, Burundai, Zaisan, Petropavlovsk, Semipalatinsk, Ust-kamenogorsk, Uralsk, Taldy-Kurgan, Kokshetau, Pavlodar, Zhezkazgan, Atyrau, Zhambyl, Zhairem, Ekibastuz, Almaty, Aktau, Kostanay, Aktyubinsk, Arkalyk, and Astana cities.
Kazakhstan's existing airlines are Air Astana, Air Company MEGA, Avia Jaynar, Bek Air, Berkut Air, Euro-Asia Air, Excellent Glide, Irtysh-Air, SCAT, Semeyavia, Zhetysu, and Zhezkazgan Air.
---
Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz