Air fares may go up in Kazakhstan again

Air fares may be raised again in Kazakhstan, Express-K writes. KazAeroNavigatsiya - Kazakhstan air navigation service - has submitted a request to raise air fares to Kazakhstan's Agency for Natural Monopolies Regulation. The expected rise of the fares will have an unavoidable impact on the passengers. KazAeroNavigatsiya asks to make equal the rates for all of the following categories: local air carriers performing domestic flights, local companies performing international flights and foreign airlines flying to any directions. The air navigation service believes that the current air fares are low: around $90 for 100km of flight. For example, air navigation in Russia costs $129 per 40 km. The company states that domestic flights are loss-making and they have to be compensated by international and transit flights. According to deputy head of the economy department of Kazakhstan's Scat airline Nikolay Kravtsov, should the amendments be adopted, the air navigation fare will raise from 250-300 ($2) to 1,200 tenge ($8) per each ticket. In the beginning of the year the cost of the air navigation services went up after air navigation fares were removed from the state registrar of the natural monopolies. Then in July the 50-percent discount that Kazakhstan air carriers used to enjoy was cancelled. As a result, the costs for domestic flight went 286 percent up, according to Air Astana, another Kazakhstan's airlines. The Agency for Natural Monopolies Regulation will take the final decision in the beginning of November.