Kokshetau International Airport
Kokshetau International Airport
Kokshetau International Airport (IATA: KOV, ICAO: UACK) is an international airport in Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. It is the primary international airport serving Kokshetau, and also the nearest to the Burabay National Park and Kokshetau National Park. Opened in 1945, it is the seventeenth-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic in Kazakhstan, with 21,683 annual passengers as of 2019. The airport is located 8.1 NM (15.0 km; 9.3 mi) north-east from the centre of Kokshetau, the capital of Akmola Region in the northern part of Kazakhstan. The airport began its new operational phase on 21 October 2013, with new building and runway structure, replacing old structure on the same site. The airport features one fully reconstructed passenger terminal and one runway, which handles both domestic and international operations. The airport is served year-round by Qazaq Air and SCAT Airlines, and was formerly a hub for Air Kokshetau operations which was also headquartered in the city. The main route is the service to Almaty, operated by Qazaq Air. The airport is managed by JSC "Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport", a government-owned corporation that manages Astana Airport. The facility opened in 1945 (1945) as Kokchetav Airport (the airport's current IATA code, KOV, is derived from the city's previous name of Kokchetav).
Location
53.329°N, 69.595°E · 274 m s. n. m. (900 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
History
Construction and early operations
The airport was constructed as a replacement for the former Kokshetau Airport that was located to the north of the city as a small grass airfield with a relatively short runway. The facility opened in 1945 (1945) and was formerly known as Kokchetav Airport, Kokshetau was known as Kokchetav at the time. It was renamed Kokshetau Airport in 1993; "International" was added to the name in 2013. In 1960, Aeroflot was flying daily Ilyushin Il-12 jet service on a round trip routing of Alma-Ata (now Almaty) – Balkhash – Karaganda – Akmolinsk (now Astana) – Kokchetav (now Kokshetau) – Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).
Also in 1963/1964, Aeroflot was operating 761 service on a round trip routing of Karaganda – Tselinograd (now Astana) – Kokchetav – Kustanai (now Kostanay) – Chelyabinsk – Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) with Lisunov Li-2 aircraft. Aeroflot served the airport during the mid 1964s with Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft flying a routing of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) – Kurgan – Petropavlovsk (now Petropavl) – Kokchetav – Tselinograd – Karaganda – Alma-Ata. In 1961, Aeroflot had service to Moscow via stops at Petropavlovsk, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Kazan flying an Ilyushin Il-14 (with total flight time of about 15 hrs.). In the early 1980s, the airfield was one of the reserve landing sites for the reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system Buran.
Development since the 2000s
Kokshetau Airport served as a hub for Air Kokshetau from 2002 to 2008. In 2004, Aero Flight, a German airline, was operating international non-stop seasonal service between June and August from Frankfurt (IATA: FRA), Germany to Kokshetau. In 2010, the airport underwent major reconstruction, including reconstruction of the passenger terminal building and modernization of the runway. Renovation and modernization of the airport was completed in 2013. The new passenger terminal opened on October 21, 2013, and was also granted an international status.
The first new airline to start international scheduled flights after the comprehensive reconstruction of the runway and passenger terminal from Kokshetau was Transaero operating Boeing 737-700 jets between Kokshetau and Moscow—Vnukovo (IATA: VKO), Russia. This flight was discontinued for summer 2016 season, as Transaero filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, as a consequence of the collapse of Transaero, S7 Airlines resumed nonstop flights to Moscow and operated a flight between Kokshetau and Moscow—Domodedovo (IATA: DME), Russia, using the Airbus A319-100 narrow body jetliners once a week for summer season. This lasted until September 2018, when S7 Airlines cancelled the flight. In late-May 2019, IrAero resumed summer season service to Moscow and operated a flight to Moscow—Zhukovsky (IATA: ZIA), Russia on the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft On 12 March 2020, FlyArystan launched three weekly flights to its hub at Almaty using Airbus A320-200 aircraft. On 22 July 2021, SCAT Airlines introduced thrice-weekly subsidized inter-republican air services to Hazret Sultan International Airport in Turkistan Region.
Airlines operating here · 1
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: Sergeygolovka · CC BY-SA 4.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Kokshetau International Airport (KOV). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV
MLA
“Kokshetau International Airport (KOV).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Kokshetau International Airport (KOV).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Kokshetau International Airport (KOV). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_kov,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Kokshetau International Airport (KOV)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KOV |title=Kokshetau International Airport (KOV) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}