Kyrgyzstan’s airlines have been on the European Union’s Air Safety List for nearly 20 years. And while the country’s government has made efforts to upgrade its aviation industry to meet EU requirements, it has unsuccessfully filed several times to have the country’s airlines removed from the blacklist.

Bishkek officials are now again saying that they are close to gaining official clearance for Kyrgyz airlines to make direct flights to and from EU countries and Kyrgyzstan has brought in special assistance to help finally convince the bloc to welcome the carriers into its airspace.

Listed from the very start

The EU both approved and published the initial list of “air carriers which are subject to an operating ban” in 2006. Kyrgyzstan’s airlines were featured on that very first list.

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

In April 2012, after 16 of Kyrgyzstan’s air carriers appeared on the updated safety list, then-director of the Civil Aviation Department in Kyrgyzstan’s Transport Ministry, Murataly Toktobekov, explained the reasons for the continued ban.

“The fleet of these [Kyrgyz] companies does not comply with international obligations, the legislative framework does not meet the civil aviation requirements generally accepted in the world,” Toktobekov said, and “there is a shortage of inspectors and their low salaries [are a concern].”

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.

Still, by November 2013, Toktobekov’s successor as director of civil aviation, Erkin Isakov, was saying Kyrgyzstan’s air carriers had made improvements and were planning for their removal from the EU air safety list in 2014.

But that did not happen and, if anything, the situation worsened. According to a report from RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz service in November 2019, most of Kyrgyzstan’s aircraft were unfit for use and only nine of 32 planes were flying at that time.

As this advert relates, new state carrier Asman Airlines (not to be confused with Iran's Aseman Airlines) is the great hope for aviation officials in the country determined that Kyrgyzstan's airlines are "going places" (Credit: Asman Airlines).

The hopes of the civil aviation head at the time, Kurmanbek Akyshev, were, however, not dampened. Negotiations, he said, were under way with the EU that would lead to the end of the blacklisting.

“The implementation of the step-by-step plan for exiting the ‘blacklist’ is 96% complete,” Akyshev said, adding, “A month ago, we were visited by two experts from the European Commission, who left recommendations on the final revision of our plan.” Akyshev announced that a new petition would be handed over to the EU at the start of 2020 on excluding Kyrgyz airliners from the EU’s skies.

Again, the ban remained.

Closer than ever?

In November 2024, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov declared during an official visit to Berlin that  his country’s airlines would soon be removed from the blacklist. Japarov met with Johan Pelissier, president of Region Europe and head of Commercial Europe for Commercial Aircraft at Airbus to discuss support for Kyrgyzstan’s national airline, Asman Airlines, in leasing two Airbus aircraft.

In February this year, the current director of the Civil Aviation Department, Daniyar Bostonov, told a press conference that Kyrgyzstan’s airliners have “successfully passed two audits on flight safety and aviation security for two years.”

Bostonov said: “We are fully prepared to exit the blacklist this year. The rest depends on the EU.”

At the start of April, Bostonov’s deputy, Kanat Tologonov, told a parliamentary committee that the European Commission conducted an audit in March, “the first of its kind in our history.” “If we pass all the checks successfully,” Tologonov continued, “a decision will be made in May 2026 to remove Kyrgyzstan from the blacklist.”

Kazakh expert brought in

At the start of May, 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 2009, the EU put Kazakhstan’s airlines, with the exception of Air Astana, on the air safety list. The restrictions were lifted in 2016, but for years various Kazakhstani carriers reappeared on the blacklist or on an enhanced monitoring list.

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.”

Radu stepped down from his post in Kazakhstan in March.

Return of direct flights?

Sixteen Kyrgyz carriers feature on the most recent list of airlines banned from flying to EU countries.

Tologonov said in April that he expected a “decision will be made in May 2026 to remove Kyrgyzstan from the blacklist.”

Bostonov said in February: “It is no longer a question whether we will be removed from it or not. We will definitely be removed.”

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 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.

There is an increasing number of Kyrgyz citizens, and citizens from other Central Asian countries, working in Europe. However, they number in the low thousands.

Bostonov said permission for direct flights to Europe would help Kyrgyzstan attract investments and lease quality aircraft at reasonable prices. That could be connected to what some feel is the main reason Kyrgyzstan has been trying to get the ban lifted, namely boosting the country’s image.

Kyrgyzstan is the only Central Asian country currently on the EU Air Safety list. It’s an unwelcome distinction, but in attempting to shed it, the government is sure it has not run out of runway.