According to him, this requires passing a special audit.

«Any country that wants to operate flights to the United States must undergo an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition, they have a separate aviation security service that we must also be audited by. For this, special infrastructure is required — a dedicated gate and equipment built to their standards, not European or other international standards. These U.S. standards cover baggage screening, hand luggage checks, and other procedures.

Staff must also be trained only in certified training centers. In other words, there is a very large set of requirements to comply with. Not to mention the need for aircraft capable of flying to the U.S. without landing. With stopovers, we can also consider it, but profitability decreases immediately and ticket prices increase,» Daniyar Bostonov explained.

He noted that among neighboring countries, only Tashkent (Uzbekistan) currently operates flights to New York.

«It may be cheaper via Istanbul, where there are many regular flights. But in the long term, we are working on this. Last year, we contacted the FAA and obtained their full list of requirements in this area.

As for flights to Budapest (Hungary) and Berlin (Germany), I personally would like these routes to exist. We are continuously working with our EU partners. The main issues are profitability, aircraft availability, passenger flow, and similar factors. From our side, regarding regulatory approvals, issuance would take about a week. But feasibility studies and analysis by airlines take much longer,» he added.

Kyrgyzstan has been removed from the EU aviation blacklist for the first time in 20 years, allowing national carriers to operate flights to Europe.