Kazakhstan to legalize air taxis as Mazhilis adopts amendments

Tengrinews.kz – The Mazhilis has adopted amendments to the law on the development of urban air mobility in Kazakhstan, including air taxis, unmanned aircraft and other next-generation aviation equipment.

What the law provides

The law creates official rules in Kazakhstan for launching urban air transport, or Urban Air Mobility. In simple terms, the state is preparing legislation for the future emergence of flying taxis, passenger drones and unmanned delivery.

The new amendments regulate not only flights themselves, but also the protection of passengers’ personal data and the transition of the entire transport system to a digital format.

The law, and in practice the country, will introduce new concepts:

Vertiport – special mini-airports or platforms for the vertical takeoff and landing of flying taxis and large drones.

Urban air mobility – the official name for a system of transporting passengers and cargo by air within a city.

Urban air mobility zone – designated sections of airspace over cities where such transport will be allowed to fly.

Unmanned traffic management – an analogue of a dispatch service that will monitor drones and flying vehicles to ensure they do not collide in the air.

According to Deputy Transport Minister Talgat Lastayev, these rules are needed so the state can control and safely develop next-generation aviation.

First of all, this concerns eVTOL aircraft, electric air transport with vertical takeoff — essentially the same unmanned flying taxis — and other smart automated systems that will soon appear in Kazakhstan’s skies.

Relevant ministries, government agencies and international experts worked on developing these rules for more than a year.

Photo: AAAG

Kazakhstan among the first to adopt laws for air taxis

Global experience was used as the basis for preparing these rules. International consultants from the United States and South Korea, airport management experts and global manufacturers of flying taxis were involved in the development.

Thus, Kazakhstan has become one of the first countries in the world to decide to immediately create a ready-made legal framework for the new aviation industry.

“While in most countries regulation of eVTOL and unmanned aviation systems is still developing through separate aviation rules, experimental regimes or industry regulations, in Kazakhstan issues of advanced air mobility have been reflected at several levels of legislation at once — from sectoral amendments in the field of airspace use to the Constitutional Law ‘On the Special Legal Regime of the City of Alatau,’” AAAG clarified.

AAAG noted that the development of urban air mobility requires the creation of a fundamentally new regulatory system, especially when it comes to the mass use of low-altitude airspace, digital air traffic management, special air corridors and infrastructure for vertical takeoff and landing.

It should be added that regulation of the new industry has already been reflected in the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the Special Legal Regime of the City of Alatau,” signed by the President on May 8, 2026. It already provides for the creation of a legal basis for introducing urban air mobility technologies, including piloted and unmanned innovative aircraft. In the future, the provision will make it possible to create special airspace zones and determine routes and corridors for urban air mobility.

At the same time, the broad use of air taxis, cargo drones and other innovative aircraft will begin only after mandatory testing under an experimental legal regime.

Cost of air taxi flights

The approximate cost of flights on flying taxis was earlier announced by Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev. According to him, the initial price will be about one dollar per kilometer.

As an example, the deputy prime minister cited a trip from Almaty airport to the city, which currently takes up to two hours because of traffic jams.

“For example, a passenger arrives at Almaty airport. Now, because of traffic jams, the road takes one and a half to two hours. Drones are planned to be placed nearby: a person books a flight in advance. Now it is roughly about one dollar per kilometer; for 15 kilometers, a person would pay 15 dollars and fly there,” Bozumbayev said.

The government expects that in the future, when new companies enter the market, competition will make air taxi flights even cheaper.

When air taxis will launch in Kazakhstan

Passenger flights should not be expected this year: all of 2026 will be devoted entirely to testing. Kanat Bozumbayev also reported this. The government decided to first thoroughly test the new technology without people on board.

How the tests will be conducted:

• First, drones will fly empty across all four seasons. Specialists need to check how heat, frost, wind, high-voltage lines and magnetic fields affect the equipment.
• Test routes will be laid out in the Almaty region. The drones will be tested on routes between Almaty airport, railway stations, Konaev, the Kapchagai reservoir and mountain resorts.
• The very first technical flights have already been completed successfully. They tested not only transportation, but also the delivery of cargo and food.

If the annual testing cycle is completed successfully, the first real flights with people may start as early as 2027. Konaev is named as the first city for launch. As the deputy prime minister said:

“We will not test with people. With people, we will already fly.”

It should be noted that the topic of air taxis was initially raised at a government meeting. At that time, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed the Ministry of Transport to prepare legislative amendments on urban air mobility, or UAM, by the end of June. He noted that Kazakhstan must be ready for the launch of air taxis, drones and other new types of aircraft.