Qazaq Air (Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) is on track to launch operations after it succeeded in securing its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee (KzCAC) last week.

Though the Kazakh Ministry of Investment and Development did not disclose the start-up's official launch date, it did confirm Qazaq Air's maiden route to be Almaty International-Pavlodar.

Owned by the former Soviet republic's sovereign investment fund, Samruk-Kazyna NWF, Qazaq Air will specialize in domestic operations connecting Almaty, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev, Shymkent, Aktobe, Pavlodar, Kostanay, Kyzylorda, Pavlodar, Taldy Kurgan, and Balkhash.

While Qazaq Air has leased a trio of DHC-8-400s from Falcon Aviation Services (FVS, Abu Dhabi Bateen), use of the Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) twinprop has proven an administrative headache as it has yet to secure type rating from the KzCAC.