ALMATY AIRPORT HUB
Almaty International closed 2025 at 11.93 million passengers — double the 2021 figure — on the new Terminal 2; foreigners through the airport grew 10% in early 2026, and the modernization plan targets 19 million by 2030.
Fifteen kilometres northeast of the centre under the Tian Shan, ALA is Kazakhstan’s busiest airport and Air Astana’s main base: 11.93 million passengers in 2025 (up from 5.6 million in 2021), 42 airlines, 87 direct destinations, and a new 53,500 m² Terminal 2 — opened June 1, 2024 — that lifted capacity past 14 million and swept the Skytrax shelf: World’s Most Improved Airport 2025, Best New Terminal, Best Regional Airport in Central Asia/CIS. TAV Airports owns 85% outright — its only owned, not concessioned, airport — with €257 million invested by end-2024. The first half of 2026 added 5.76 million passengers; foreigners through the terminal grew 10% to 2.2 million in five months.
The next phase — $362 million through 2029 — shifts from terminal to airfield: capacity to 19 million passengers a year by 2030, with long-range sketches of 40–55 million by 2050. The constraint is geographic and famous: the airport sits in a mountain bowl that closes it in fog and inversion; a proposed second airport outside the smog line has been debated for years. Bus 92 links the terminal to the centre; the official taxi desk or Yandex Go ends the arrivals-hall negotiation.
THE TIO READ
ALA is the region’s most improved airport — and still its most weather-prone: in December–February book morning departures and leave a buffer night before long-haul connections. Terminal 2 handles international; domestic stays in the old hall — check which one before you leave the hotel.
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