ASTANA – Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have launched the new T916 air corridor, improving flight routes between Europe and Southeast Asia. The strategic addition, as reported by the Civil Aviation Committee on July 22, is expected to increase traffic towards the end of the summer season as airlines familiarize themselves with the route.

Although the corridor has handled only 19 flights since opening, it promises to become an important route for international air traffic.

Several airlines have used the T916 corridor, including Lufthansa Cargo (Germany), Cargolux (Luxembourg), Cargolux Italia (Italy), Nomad Aviation (Switzerland), Western Global Airlines (United States) and Aerologic Cargo Airlines (Germany).

The total length of the T916 air corridor is 2,187 kilometers, of which 437 kilometers runs through the airspace of Uzbekistan and the remaining 1,750 kilometers over Kazakhstan.

The opening of this new air traffic service route was initiated at the proposal of airlines and the air navigation provider of Uzbekistan, State Unitary Enterprise Center UzAeroNavigation. It is included in the preferred route catalogue of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

This new corridor is expected to increase the attractiveness of Kazakh airspace for foreign airlines and reduce the workload of air traffic controllers at the Kazaeronavigatsia Southeast Regional Air Traffic Management Center.