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Kazakhstan’s Air Astana faces $15mn fine over ticket prices

Kazakhstan’s competition watchdog has initiated court proceedings that could enforce fines totalling KZT6.7 billion tenge (USD15 million) on Air Astana (KC, Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev), accusing it of abusing its dominant position in the market to charge unreasonably high prices for air tickets.

The proceedings are a result of a joint audit of the airline’s activities by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition conducted last year. The outcomes were presented by the head of the competition watchdog's transport and communications department, Nurgul Zhamanova, during a Senate hearing.

"On December 12, 2022, an administrative protocol was drawn up in relation to Air Astana. The amount of the fine for 2021 is KZT4.8 billion [USD10.7 million], for 2022 KZT1.9 billion [USD4.3 million]. Court proceedings are now underway," Zhamanova said.

Zhamanova stressed that on top of the proposed fine, the audit's results also included two proposed legislative changes.

“First we need to ensure the development of legal acts regulating the use of dynamic pricing in the field of air transportation....