Almaty just became noticeably easier to reach from two very different corners of the world. On Oct. 10, VietJet Air started flying a Hanoi–Almaty–Prague route twice a week with Airbus A330s, and two days later Flydubai touched down at Almaty International Airport with its first scheduled cargo flight from Dubai.

The VietJet service is the more interesting one for holidaymakers. Thanks to fifth-freedom traffic rights, you don't have to fly the whole Hanoi–Prague span — you can book just the Almaty–Prague leg, or hop the other way from Southeast Asia into Kazakhstan's biggest city. In practice, that means a rare direct thread connecting Central Asia to both Europe and Vietnam, with Almaty sitting in the middle as the pivot point.

Kazakhstan's tourism officials have reason to push the route. Vietnamese visitor numbers to Almaty rose 20% in 2025 over the previous year, and the new link is designed to build on that momentum. For Europeans, it works in reverse too: Prague-based travellers get a one-stop-free option into the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains without routing through Istanbul or the Gulf.

The Flydubai cargo flights won't carry suitcase-toting passengers — they run weekly on Boeing 737 freighters — but they signal where Almaty is heading. The city is positioning itself as Central Asia's aviation and logistics hub, and more air connections of any kind tend to translate into more competition, better schedules and eventually cheaper fares for everyone.

Why should this matter for your trip planning? Almaty remains one of the more underrated city bases in Asia: a grid of leafy streets under 5,000-metre peaks, a fast-rising food and café scene, and easy access to skiing at Shymbulak or hiking in the nearby gorges. Until now, getting there from Europe usually meant a connection through a Gulf mega-hub. A direct-ish Prague routing changes the calculus, especially for travellers who like stitching two regions into one trip — a few days in Bohemia, then a long weekend in Kazakhstan, all on a single carrier.

It's also a sign of things to come. Almaty's airport has been steadily adding routes, and with Kazakhstan courting both Vietnamese and European tourists, expect more carriers to test the market. If Almaty has been sitting on your long-list, the window of cheap, convenient access is open right now.