At the press conference following the meeting of the Government, the Minister for Investments and Development Zhenis Kassymbek said that today the ministry faces an important task — the development of sustainable flights between regions and the development of domestic tourism, as well as the provision of sanitary and postal transportation.

As the minister noted, in the last 25 years, much attention has been paid to large-scale aviation. At the same time, the Ministry is also taking measures to develop small aircraft.

"Over the past two years, we have adopted several special programs for small aircraft and are planning to begin their implementation," said Zhenis Kassymbek.

It is also planned to build 16 local airfields. In 2017, work has already begun in this direction: airports have been opened in small towns, such as Urdzhar, Usharal.

Special subsidies are allocated to support this direction.

Also Zhenis Kassymbek informed that today, together with Almaty akimat in the pilot mode, work is underway to create a new carrier in the field of small aircraft on the basis of the Zhetysu airline. In the future, 20 regional aircrafts will be purchased for this airline.

Besides, answering journalists' question about new international directions, Zhenis Kassymbek noted that since the beginning of 2017, foreign and Kazakhstan airlines have opened 10 new international air routes from Astana to Delhi, Warsaw, Helsinki, Budapest, Beijing, Yerevan, Kiev, Batumi, Mineralnye Vody, Xian.

In 2018, Kazakhstan airlines are planning to open flights from Astana to Tyumen, Krasnodar, Vilnius, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Sochi, Batumi, and Dushanbe. International airlines (Air Baltic, Emirates, Fly Dubai, Angara, Aeroflot) are planning to open flights Riga - Almaty, Dubai - Almaty, Dubai - Aktau, Krasnoyarsk - Almaty, Moscow - Kyzylorda.