After 20 years, Kyrgyzstan’s airlines have been removed from the European Union's aviation safety blacklist.

The huge boost for the Central Asian country’s carriers was announced by the presidential administration on June 8.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport has deleted from the Air Safety List all airlines certified in Kyrgyzstan, the presidency said.

The decision is to be formalised by a European Commission regulation. No other Central Asian country is on the list.

"The European Commission highly appreciated our progress [in aviation], including the results of technical consultations, an assessment visit in March 2026 and hearings in Brussels. It will continue technical interaction with Kyrgyzstan to support the results achieved," said a statement from the presidency.

As reported for bne IntelliNews by Central Asia specialist Bruce Pannier in May last year, Kyrgyzstan, following the blacklisting, made several unsuccessful efforts to upgrade its aviation industry to meet EU requirements, but was growing confident that the latest attempt would make the grade.

With their new EU-blessed status, Kyrgyz airlines will be able to make direct flights to and from countries in the bloc.

The EU published its initial list of “air carriers subject to an operating ban” almost exactly 20 years ago. Kyrgyzstan’s airlines featured on that very first list.

The European Commission updates the list after consultations with aviation authorities from all EU member states.

In November 2024, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov declared on an official visit to Berlin that his country’s airlines would soon be removed from the blacklist.

At the start of May last year, there was an announcement that Kyrgyzstan had hired the former director of the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan (AAK), Catalin Radu, as a consultant.

Radu, a former president of the European Civil Aviation Conference and founder of the Eurasian Civil Aviation Conference, with more than 25 years in the aviation industry, was appointed the AAK chief in April 2022.

In May 2024, the EU fully lifted all restrictions on Kazakh flight carriers. Kazakh authorities said Radu “played a key role in removing Kazakhstan” from the EU enhanced monitoring list and presented him with a special award for his contributions to civil aviation in Kazakhstan.”

Before Kyrgyzstan was put on the EU Air Safety List, Kyrgyz airlines flew routes to London, Birmingham, Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hannover, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Amsterdam.

There are questions about how popular the restoration of direct flights to Europe will be. It is already possible to reach Europe from Kyrgyzstan by flying via Turkey or the United Arab Emirates.

Kyrgyz airlines are also able to fly to cities in Asia and Middle East.

In 2011, Kyrgyz airlines made nine emergency landings, including the crash landing of an Altyn Air Tu-134A with 88 people aboard in Osh during a foggy December night. Twenty-five people on the 37-year-old plane were injured.

A report from RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz service in November 2019 said most of Kyrgyzstan’s aircraft were unfit for use and only nine of 32 planes were flying at that time. But renewed efforts in recent years to create an internationally compliant air fleet have now reaped rewards.

The great hope for Kyrgyz aviation is a new flag carrier, Asman Airlines (IATA: MN, ICAO: KGN), which went operational nearly two years ago. Based at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, state-owned Asman (meaning “Sky” in Kyrgyz and not to be confused with Iran's Aseman Airlines) hopes to offer flights to and from the EU that will be flown by two leased Airbus A320neo aircraft.