Qantas and China Eastern create Jetstar Hong Kong – Another LCC joins the fight but where is the infrastructure?
26th March 2012
Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna has revealed that it sold a 51% stake in domestic carrier Qazaq Air for 1.02bn tenge ($1.98 million) earlier this year.
In a disclosure filed with the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), Samruk-Kazyna confirmed the sale price and stated that it has “lost control” of Qazaq Air, but still retains “significant influence”.
On May 6, 2025, Samruk-Kazyna sold a 49% stake in Qazaq Air to Central Asia Aviation Holdings and a 2% stake to Kazasia Holdings.
Central Asia Aviation Holdings is linked to Vietjet through its parent company, Vietnam’s Sovico Group.
Sovico Group currently holds 7% of Vietjet shares, while its chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao holds 1%. Nguyen Thi Phuong is also the founder and current chairwoman of Vietjet.
In January 2025, Samruk Kazyna signed a share purchase agreement in Qazaq Air with a consortium of investors comprising Central Asia Aviation Holdings and Kazasia Holdings.
The deal was for the sale of 51% of shares with an option for the state fund to sell the other 49% in the next five years.
The agreement also stipulates the mandatory paying off of Qazaq Air's debt, estimated at 38 billion tenge ($75 million).
Sovico committed to purchasing at least 20 Airbus and Boeing aircraft for Qazaq Air within five years, with a target of up to 50 planes. Direct investments are projected to exceed $1 billion.
At the Kazakhstan-Vietnam roundtable in May this year, Vietjet Air and Qazaq Air signed an agreement to create a new airline, Vietjet Qazaqstan.
Vietjet Qazaqstan will operate a fleet of at least 20 Boeing 737 aircraft. At the roundtable, Qazaq Air and Boeing signed a Customer Services General Terms Agreement to support the future fleet.
Boeing will provide comprehensive services, including software solutions, spare parts supply, technical support, as well as pilot and engineer training programmes.
Qazaq Air, established in 2015, holds around 7% of Kazakhstan's aviation market, and carried more than 600,000 passengers in 2024.
At the end of 2024, Qazaq Air's fleet consisted of five Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop aircrafts.
In full-year 2024, it generated 21bn tenge ($42 million) in revenue and delivered an EBITDA of over 2bn tenge ($3.9 million).