Independent Russian carrier, Transaero Airlines, will further boost connectivity between Russia and Kazakhstan next month when it inaugurates flights between Moscow and Aktobe, a city located in northwestern Kazakhstan on the Ilek River. The link to the Kazakhstan city, formerly known as Aktyubinsk up until 1999, will operate on a twice weekly basis from March 2, 2014 and will be flown by a Boeing 737.

Aktobe, the administrative center of the Aktyubinsk region, is an actively developing city that has become the ninth destination of Transaero’s flights in Kazakhstan. Transaero currently offers direct links from Moscow toAstana, Almaty, Aktau, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kokshetau, Kostanay and Shimket.

The new route launch comes as Transaero celebrates more than 20 years of operations into Kazakhstan. It made its debut in the country in 1993 when it launched a twice weekly link between Moscow and Almaty and just two years later became the first foreign carrier to introduce flights between Moscow and Astana (then Akmola) in response to a personal request made by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev in 1995. It is now the largest foreign airline operating flights to Kazakhstan in terms of passenger traffic carrying nearly four million passengers between Russia and Kazakhstan over the past 20 years.

According to MIDT data, an estimated 1.01 million bi-directional O&D passengers flew between destinations in Russia and points across Kazakhstan in 2012. This represented an annual growth of 14.1 per cent versus the previous year. Transaero was the dominant carrier in this market in 2012 with a 36.7 per cent share of the traffic, although Kazakhstan flag carrier Air Astana was only just behind with a growing 36.1 per cent share after expanding its activities between the two countries.

In the table below we look in greater detail at the available seat capacity between Russia and Kazakhstan over the past ten years. With the exception of 2009, the market has been in growth in every one of the past ten years with capacity rising by its largest share, 38.5 per cent, last year. Our analysis highlights the important role that Transaero has played in providing connectivity between Russia and Kazakhstan, with this year the first across the ten year period in which it has not been the market leader in terms of capacity.