Kazakhstan is a model for the region - ICAO head on the country’s strategic role in global aviation

In your opinion, what drove Kazakhstan's high ICAO safety compliance? 

- Let me say that Kazakhstan has made incredible progress in terms of safety and security compliance in recent years. But more generally, Kazakhstan has made huge progress in terms of civil aviation development. It's not just an issue of implementing standards; it's an issue of how the organization is better prepared to implement them. In the last five or six years, Kazakhstan has undertaken a new policy reorganizing the civil aviation mechanism, reorganizing and appointing staff, appointing many young staff and professionals that are supporting the implementation of standards. Currently, Kazakhstan has an excellent level of safety implementation. In our audits, it resulted in being above the global average. That is a good achievement. Of course, there is always a need to implement, to progress, and to improve. But the current performances in terms of safety implementation and also security implementation are very, very good.

Building on that point, will policies help Kazakhstan become a key transport gateway not only regionally but globally? 

- First of all, aviation is, by definition, global. Connectivity, by definition, is global. You need a country, first of all, that has strong infrastructures in order to promote air transport. At the same time, there is a need for good policies in order to open the market to have access to air transport. Kazakhstan has adopted what is called the “liberalization of open skies” policy. It's a policy that gives foreign airlines easy access to air transport in Kazakhstan. At the same time, the national airline, Air Astana, is growing and is developing very, very well.

Additionally, let me say that the geographic position of Kazakhstan between Europe and the Asia-Pacific is a good opportunity for the development of air transport. In this sense, there is the basis for a good development of the civil aviation of Kazakhstan regionally and globally. What is important is to continue to implement the high-level standards, of course, to support the development of infrastructures and to be a leader globally in international aviation, being engaged with the states, with promoting, for example, the access of the next generation of aviation professionals.

Aside from policies, we also have to discuss ICAO programs. Which ones, in your opinion, help to address the shortage of professionals in the field? And also, what ways are there for young Kazakh professionals to get into and become part of ICAO? 

- We have to recognize, first of all, that the growth rate of aviation will bring us from the current 4.6 billion passengers per year to approximately 12.6 billion passengers per year in 2050, meaning approximately three times the traffic that there is today. In order to support this growth of traffic, there is a need for new professionals. There is a need to fill positions that will become more and more available. To do so, contrary to the past, when aviation was attractive to young people, aviation now has to create more attention for the young generations. This is why we have a program called Next Generation Aviation Professionals. It's a program that has the objective to promote initiatives at the state level or the regional level in order to address young people at the school level in order to create interest, to understand better what the opportunities are to work in aviation, and what are the best possibilities are. Next month, we will have a summit in South Africa that will address at the global level this initiative. We will then conclude the call for action and submit it to the ICAO assembly in September or October of this year.

There are several ways to join ICAO. Of course, there are the so-called vacancy notices where everyone can apply. But there are other opportunities through the Civil Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan that are internships, secondments, and opportunities to work for a limited time frame while providing a contribution to the work of ICAO and learning from a global perspective, working in Montreal or in the regional office in Paris.

We also have to discuss your current visit. What are the achievements of this visit, and how do you see our cooperation with Kazakhstan going forward?

- Just to give an example, we signed a design project on the Civil Aviation Master Plan of Kazakhstan this morning during the meeting with the Minister of Transport. It's just an indication of how the relationship between Kazakhstan and ICAO can deliver some outstanding and positive progress. The relationship between ICAO at the regional level, with the regional office in Paris, or the central level, with the headquarters in Montreal, is already well established. We have other programs and initiatives, so we cooperate together.

Very recently, Kazakhstan has established in Montreal a permanent delegation. It's a good sign of the engagement of Kazakhstan in the work of ICAO. What I see is that there is already a good framework of relationship and cooperation, and given the strong commitment of the leaders of Kazakhstan, we can only see how to improve this. I'm very, very satisfied that the opportunity that I had today to meet the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Transport has been all confirming that there is a strong commitment of Kazakhstan. Of course, I confirmed the commitment of ICAO to support Kazakhstan in the development of more and more air transport.

I just want to stress once more that the progress of civil aviation in Kazakhstan is a model for the region. This is a region that has been suffering in the past, let's say some marginal role, in aviation between Europe, which has been, let's say, a mature market, and Asia-Pacific, which was a developing market.

In the past, Kazakhstan and the other countries in the region have been marginal. What we see in the future is that the traffic is moving from the mature markets towards the developing countries. When I say that there will be a triple of traffic over passengers between now and 2050, we also have to acknowledge that currently only 20% of the world population can travel because there is limited accessibility or limited affordability in terms of tickets. The traffic will move towards this region, as well as other developing regions, more and more.

In this sense, air transport will become an excellent enabler for the socioeconomic development of this region, of these countries, of this region. And Kazakhstan probably is the first that has immediately understood the opportunity and is working very hard to capture this opportunity.

How would you describe Kazakhstan's aviation currently in one word?

- Fast developing and mature enough. Four words.

Earlier, President of ICAO Council Salvatore Sciacchitano highlighted Kazakhstan’s bold steps in aviation safety and environmental progress.