Kazakhstan is on a construction spree in the sky. First Deputy Prime Minister Nurlan Nalybayev announced on Nov. 4 that three brand-new airports — in Zaisan, Katon-Karagai and Kenderli — will be finished by the end of 2026, alongside a wave of upgrades to airports the country already has.
The existing-airport work is extensive. Almaty and Urdzhar are both under construction and modernisation, Shymkent is getting a second runway, Pavlodar's runway was rebuilt in August, and Arkalyk Airport has been restored. Air navigation systems are being overhauled too, using international equipment and standards.
For travellers, the more interesting news might be the routes. The first Almaty–Tokyo flight is scheduled for Nov. 30, and the government says new links to Vienna, New York, Milan and other cities are planned for 2027. If those land as promised, Kazakhstan goes from being a place you'd struggle to reach directly to somewhere you can fly to from three continents nonstop.
Much of the programme is about freight rather than passengers. Kazakhstan is standing up a national cargo carrier, Air Cargo, with a planned fleet of ten aircraft — the first due in November 2026 and a second in March 2027. Fuel facilities and cargo terminals are being modernised and hooked into road and rail networks for multimodal freight, and the whole transport sector is being digitised through a platform called E-Kolik, intended to make documentation fully paperless and speed up cargo processing. Free economic zone arrangements have been introduced at several key transport hubs.
The logic is geographical. Kazakhstan sits squarely on overland routes between Europe and Asia, and the government wants to convert that position into real hub status — more transit passengers, more freight, more international connections. For holidaymakers, the near-term payoff is simpler: newer and better-equipped airports in places that previously had minimal aviation infrastructure, and a growing list of direct long-haul options through Almaty.
Katon-Karagai is worth a note for adventurous travellers — it sits near the Altai Mountains in far eastern Kazakhstan, close to Belukha, the country's highest peak, and Lake Markakol. A proper airport there makes one of the country's remotest and most scenic corners far more reachable. Zaisan is also in the east, near the Chinese border; Kenderli is on the Caspian coast in the west, near Mangystau's stark canyon and sea landscapes that have started drawing road-trippers in recent years.
None of this changes Kazakhstan overnight, but by late 2027 the country could plausibly be easier to reach and to explore within than it has ever been — and that's enough reason to keep an eye on route announcements.
