Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport

Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport is the principal airport of Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, and the second-busiest airport in the country after Almaty (ALA). Located 10 mi (17 km) southeast of downtown Astana at 1,165 ft (355 m) elevation on the Kazakh steppe, NQZ handles 87 routes across 56 destinations through 24 airlines. The airport carries the IATA code NQZ since a 2020 change from its historical TSE designation, reflecting the renaming of the city from Astana to Nur-Sultan (2019) and back to Astana (2022) — a rare double-renaming that reflects the political reorientation following Kazakhstan's 2022 January events and the displacement of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev from his dominant political role. The airport itself still carries Nazarbayev's name formally. Air Astana, the Kazakh national flag carrier, operates NQZ as a secondary hub alongside its principal Almaty base, with a network emphasizing Russian, Central Asian, Chinese, European, and Gulf destinations. The carrier's low-cost subsidiary FlyArystan, SCAT, Qazaq Air, and Bek Air (when operational) provide additional Kazakh domestic and regional connectivity. Foreign scheduled service includes Turkish Airlines (Istanbul, which serves as the principal European transit point for Kazakh travelers), flydubai, Air Arabia, Uzbekistan Airways, Belavia, Aeroflot, Azur Air, Ural Airlines, LOT, Lufthansa, KLM, Air China, China Southern, Beijing Capital, Sichuan Airlines, and Korean Air. The airport serves critical government and diplomatic functions given Astana's role as the political capital and as a venue for major international summits including regular CSTO, SCO, and Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia events. The airfield operates a single asphalt runway — 04/22 at 11,484 ft (3,500 m) — capable of full widebody operations. The striking passenger terminal complex consists of Terminal 1 (the original building, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and opened in 2005) and Terminal 2 (opened in 2017 for EXPO 2017 Astana, significantly expanding international capacity). The Kurokawa-designed T1 features distinctive curving roof lines and cable-stayed elements characteristic of late Metabolist architecture, making it one of the more architecturally notable airport buildings in Central Asia. NQZ experiences extreme continental climate with winter temperatures regularly below -30 °C (-22 °F), making it one of the coldest operational major airports in the world.