As part of the International cooperation element of the strategy of Aviation Administration a number of international meetings are in the process to help build capability of the State. In recent days AAK has conducted meetings with various U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, to discuss international cooperation and peer review of progress in key areas such as the IT development ofthe country’s safety systems. Comments have been made in these peer reviews complimenting Kazakhstan for its into national thinking in how to address safety issues as well as participating in International exchanges of safety thinking and data.

With the new agreements in place AAK staff are now participating on a regular basis in International working groups in areas such as safety data exchange, International registration of aircraft, COVID control measures, Runway Safety, and Aviation Security the outputs of which are being incorporated in the State Safety Programme via legislative changes and information to operators.
Recent developments also include knowledge transfer in IT development with the Business Optix team working with groups at Nazabayev University.

The next bilateral meeting between the EU Air Safety Committee and Kazakhstan at Aviation group level is planned for 26th March involving officials from Kazakhstan, European Commission Staff, European Aviation Safety Agency and Member State Representative on the Air Safety Committee. Topics for this exchange include: Overall progress towards a fully operational AAK model, Transition of the UKCAA contract to EASA to initiate higher delivery of Step 68 of the National plan, and progress on the investigation of the Bek Air accident.

The Director General of AAK Peter Griffiths said: Progress is being made in a number of key areas such as safety data exchange and planning for the introduction of just culture mechanisms. We are also finishing a programme of work that will see further changes in the registration of aircraft here in Kazakhstan for passenger services with our carriers. In all good progress has been made towards achieving Step 68 in support of the National Plan. The plan will be assessed at the end of the work by an ICAO USOAP audit planned for 2023 when International Inspectors will review the transformation and assess Kazakhstan’s aviation progress towards the global safety initiatives of ICAO.