Electric Taxis at Almaty Airport in Kazakhstan - Video Interview with Co-Founder, Auez Tulegenov

Dark/Light Mode (31/10/23)  With construction on Almaty Airport's (ALA) new terminal expected to be finished in mid-2024, Air Astana continually expanding its network as its fleet grows with brand new planes, and with more and more airlines launching or resuming flights to the city, the arrival experience can at best be described as chaotic.

Despite that, travellers can remove a lot of the stress associated with arriving at ALA by simply booking the official airport taxi to their hotel and back in advance.

And, in a nod to sustainable development and a greener future, the official airport taxi company operates a growing fleet of electric cars that currently comprises of Nissan Leafs, Tesla Model 3s, and Volkswagen ID4s, with more expected to be added in the near future.

Owned by Blue Sky Energy, the airport - hotel taxis operate on a transparent, fixed rate basis, with the Nissan Leaf available for 5,000 Tenge and the more premium Tesla Model 3 and Volkswagen ID4 available for just 7,000 Tenge.

Electric Airport Taxis at Almaty Airport in Kazakhstan - Interview with Co-Founder, Auez Tulegenov

The booking process could not be simpler, as everything can be booked via WhatsApp in just a few minutes.

To learn more about the company, how the idea for electric airport taxis in Almaty was born, and how the concept has thus far been received by travellers, Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com interviewed Auez Tulegenov, the Co-Founder and Commercial Director of Blue Sky Energy.

Filmed in Almaty on 20 August 2023, Auez shares his inspiration for a greener future and tells us about the cars the company currently operates, and which models of electric cars they may acquire in the future as the fleet expands.

We discuss the company's goals, how Blue Sky is using technology to enhance their own operations as well as the travel experience for customers, and what challenges they face in recruiting suitable drivers.

Auez tells us which model of car is proving the most popular, which other airports in Kazakhstan the company is hoping to launch operations at and when, which markets outside Kazakhstan are showing the most growth potential, and with Almaty being a favourite destination for sports enthusiasts, we discuss what type of equipment - such as skis, snowboards, and bicycles - the cars can carry. All that and much, much more in the video and podcast below.

Almaty International Airport (ALA)

Built in 1935, ALA is the busiest airport in Central Asia and handled approximately 7.23 million passengers in 2022, an increase on the 6.1 million passengers in 2021 and on the 6.4 million in 2019, pre-COVID19. The airport is expected to welcome over 9 million passengers in 2023.

This year, approximately 35 airlines will operate passenger flights to and from the airport, including IndiGo which will launch flights between Delhi and Almaty in September. There are also seven dedicated cargo airlines operating to and from the airport.

Air Astana is the airport's main carrier and has ambitious growth plans for both its fleet and network. The airline, excluding its low cost subsidiary FlyArystan, operates an average of 38 flights per day to/from Almaty Airport.

The airline currently operates international services from Almaty to Antalya, Baku, Bangkok, Batumi, Beijing, Bishkek, Bodrum, Delhi, Dubai, Dushanbe, Heraklion, Istanbul, London (via Aktau), Phuket, Podgorica, Seoul, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Tel Aviv.

Air Astana will also launch flights from Almaty to Jeddah on 1 October, as well as to Urumqi and Male on 29 October 2023.

Air Astana's domestic services from Almaty include: Aktau, Aktobe, Astana, Atyrau, Kyzylorda, Oskemen, Shymkent and Uralsk.

FlyArystan, the low cost airline subsidiary of Air Astana, currently offers services from bases in Almaty, Astana, Atyrau, Aktau and Shymkent, Kazakhstan to destinations in Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Turkey, UAE and Uzbekistan. The LCC will launch flights between Almaty and Delhi in late-September 2023.

A new terminal is currently under construction at the airport and is expected to open in June 2024. The 50,000 sqm terminal will be used for international arrivals and departures and will increase capacity at the airport to 14 million passengers per year, a massive increase on the current airport's official capacity of just 2.7 million passengers. The new baggage handling system in the terminal is expected to be able to handle approximately 2,400 bags per hour. Work on the new terminal started in June 2022.

Electric Taxis at Almaty Airport (ALA) in Kazakhstan - Exclusive Video Interview with Co-Founder, Auez Tulegenov

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