Air Astana has begun direct services from Astana and Almaty to Salalah, adding new air links between Kazakhstan and Oman. The Astana service was formally opened on 24 October, one day after the first Almaty–Salalah flight operated.
The first flight from Astana carried 140 passengers and was full. The preceding flight from Almaty also departed at full capacity. Those two departures mark the start of scheduled services rather than a plan for a route still awaiting its first operation.
Two weekly links to Salalah
Each of the two routes is scheduled to operate once a week, using Airbus A320 aircraft. Almaty’s service began on Friday 23 October and the Astana flight followed on Saturday 24 October. Taken together, the schedule provides two Kazakhstan departures to Salalah each week, although they are separate services from different cities.
Salalah is Air Astana’s first destination in Oman. The city is in the country’s south, distinct from Muscat, the capital. A separate Almaty–Muscat connection is already operated by SalamAir, so the new flights add a link to a different Omani airport rather than replacing that existing service.
The opening gives travellers in Kazakhstan a direct route to Salalah without a change of aircraft en route. For passengers starting in either city, that may widen the choices available for journeys to southern Oman. The initial full flights record demand for the inaugural departures, but they do not by themselves establish how traffic will develop over a longer period or at other times of year.
Air-services agreement preceded launch
The services follow an air-services agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and Oman, signed on 6 October. The agreement was concluded during a meeting between Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. It created the bilateral framework for the new operation.
Before the flights began, Oman’s civil aviation regulator approved Air Astana to operate between Salalah and Astana and Almaty from 23 October. That approval covered two flights a week in total, matching the one-weekly pattern for each Kazakh departure point.
Commercial flights need both an operating plan and the permissions that allow a carrier to fly between the relevant states. The sequence in this case is clear: the bilateral agreement was signed earlier in October, regulatory approval was made public before the first departure, and the inaugural flights then operated on consecutive days.
What changes for the route network
Air Astana has added two services to the same destination, rather than creating a single route that alternates between cities. That distinction matters for travellers: the origin, operating day and airport are different, even though both flights arrive in Salalah and use the same aircraft type.
The new connections may support travel, trade and cultural exchange between Kazakhstan and Oman, but those wider effects will depend on how the services are used over time. No conclusion about their longer-term performance can be drawn from the opening weekend alone.
For now, the material development is the move from announced timetable to operating flights. With departures from both Astana and Almaty now underway, Salalah has joined the carrier’s international network as its first destination in Oman.
