Delivery of fourth Q400 turboprop to Kyrgyzstan pushed to 2026

Image: Airports of Kyrgyzstan

The delivery of the fourth De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprop regional aircraft to Kyrgyzstan’s national carrier, Asman Airlines, has been postponed until 2026.

This was confirmed during a speech by Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev in the Central Asian nation’s parliament on December 24.

“The arrival of a Q400 aircraft is expected next year, and there are plans to acquire two Airbus A321s,” he said.

The head of the government was clearly referring to plans to expand the fleet of state-owned Asman Airlines. A subsidiary of the Airports of Kyrgyzstan holding company, Asman is the country’s only operator of the Q400 (DHC 8-400) turboprop. The carrier received its third aircraft of this type earlier this year and had originally expected the fourth to be delivered in May.

According to Kasymaliev, the airport holding spent 2.385 billion soms (around US$27 million) of its own funds to purchase the three Q400s currently in the fleet.

Asman plans to acquire two Airbus A321 medium-haul jets to launch flights to Europe once Kyrgyzstan is removed from the EU’s air safety blacklist. In August, Airports of Kyrgyzstan—which includes Asman—signed a memorandum with the Eurasian Development Bank, the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund, and the state-owned Eldik Bank to secure US$55 million for the purchase of these aircraft.

CentralAsia+ Aero earlier reported: Kyrgyzstan’s Asman Airlines restores regular flights between Karakol and Almaty.