First foreign partner expresses interest in Astana’s new airport

Changi Airport Group CEO Yam Kum Weng (in center) at a meeting with Kazakhstan’s prime minister Olzhas Bektenov (photo – Kazakhstan government press-service)

Changi Airport Group, the operator of Singapore Changi Airport, has become the first foreign company to publicly express interest in constructing a new airport in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. Group CEO Yam Kum Weng stated this during a meeting with Olzhas Bektenov, Prime Minister of the Central Asian republic, on August 21.

According to the Kazakh prime minister’s press service, Yam confirmed the group’s readiness to contribute its aviation industry expertise, knowledge, and experience toward developing the new capital airport as a regional hub.

In addition to Changi, Changi Airport Group operates Singapore’s second airport, Seletar. It is also involved in airport projects worldwide. In 2023, its division Changi Airports International (CAI) signed an agreement with Uzbekistan Airports for the joint development of Tashkent Airport.

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev originally voiced the idea of building a new airport in Astana to boost the city’s transit capacity in December 2025. Passenger traffic at the existing airport (NQZ) has already reached its maximum capacity of 8.9 million passengers.

In 2024, the facility handled 8.3 million passengers. While full-year numbers for 2025 have not been officially announced by the airport, nearly 7.8 million passengers passed through it during the first ten months of last year. Astana city’s authorities also reported that actual traffic at the airport’s domestic Terminal 2 reached 6.3 million passengers last year, exceeding its design capacity of 3.7 million per year.

Speaking at a government meeting in July, Transport Minister Nurlan Sauranbayev stated that construction of the second Astana airport will begin as early as 2027. While the final location is yet to be determined, Sauranbayev pointed to the Balkaragay area east of the city as a priority site in May. The current airport is located in southern Astana.

Total passenger traffic across all Kazakhstan airports reached 31.8 million people in 2025, up 7.1% from the previous year.