Kazakhstan marks first autonomous passenger eVTOL demo flight

Image: Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has achieved a key milestone in its regional Urban Air Mobility (UAM) strategy with the completion of the country’s first passenger-carrying autonomous flight. The flight demonstration featured the EH216-S—a production-model passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developed by China-based eHang—and was conducted over a designated flight test zone in Astana.

The two-seat autonomous aircraft features a maximum cruise speed of 130 km/h and an operational range of up to 35 km.

The demonstration anchors Kazakhstan’s ambitions to establish an early-mover advantage in eVTOL integration and commercial air taxi operations across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Full commercial deployment is targeted for late 2028, subject to finalizing regulatory frameworks, building out vertiport ground infrastructure, completing aircraft certification, and establishing specialized workforce training programs.

Initial regulatory groundwork is already underway. Late last June, national lawmakers enacted legislative amendments establishing standard operating procedures for eVTOLs, regulatory guidelines for vertiport operations, and integration protocols for Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) architectures.

Initial commercial concepts of operation will focus on aerial sightseeing and tourist routes ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. Long-term, transportation planners aim to integrate autonomous passenger systems into the national multimodal transport network.

Kazakhstan is also evaluating local assembly and manufacturing opportunities for passenger uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to support long-term fleet deployment.

CentralAsia+ Aero earlier reported: Air Astana incurs H1 loss as passenger volumes soften.

CentralAsia+ Aero earlier reported: Chinese COMAC C909 regional jets may appear in Kazakhstan.