A meeting was held between the delegation of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Transport of the RK and JSC "Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan" headed by Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee Talgat Lastayev and Director General of the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan Catalin Radu, with the participation of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Belgium, with representatives of the European Commission, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and aviation authorities of EU member states (Ireland, Cyprus) on flight safety and the Horizontal Agreement.

During the meeting, Talgat Lastayev, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee, and members of the Kazakh delegation presented an overview of the work carried out over the past year. The meeting at the expert level was held in the areas of flight operations, airworthiness, licensing of aviation personnel, quality management systems and safety management.

Peter Bombay, Chairman of the European Union Safety Committee, positively assessed the measures taken by the aviation authorities of Kazakhstan to eliminate previously identified observations and recommendations on safety issues and noted the areas in which it will be necessary to strengthen the work. Close co-operation between CAC and AAK with representatives of the European Commission will continue to improve the level of flight safety in Kazakhstan.

It should be noted that currently there are no restrictions on Kazakhstani airlines to perform regular flights to the countries of the European Union, therefore, Air Astana and SCAT airlines have the right to perform regular flights to European countries.

A meeting was also held with Mr Klaus Geil, Deputy Head of the European Commission Directorate, during which the draft Horizontal Agreement on Air Services between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the European Union was discussed. The parties noted the progress made in the ongoing work to harmonise the draft Agreement and agreed to continue work on its signing.

The signing of the Horizontal Agreement will provide an opportunity to expand air traffic between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the countries of the European Union, which in turn will contribute to the further development of tourism, cultural, economic and business cooperation.