Air Astana forced to cancel Astana-Ulanbaatar flights

Air Astana has been forced to cancel the planned launch of flights connecting the capitals of Kazakhstan and Mongolia with direct Astana-Ulaanbaatar flights starting from 2nd June 2016, due to the ungrounded revocation of permission by the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia (CAAM). The intergovernmental Air Services Agreement between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Mongolia was signed in 1992 and the Memorandum of Understanding establishing the number of flights to be operated was signed in 2014. These documents provide the legal basis for the airlines of two countries to start flights with immediate effect of signing. Air Astana started the flight permission application process that normally takes two months, eight months before the first flight. The company successfully completed the audit by the Mongolian civil aviation authorities and was informed that there were “zero findings”. CAAM granted permission to start flights in March 2016. In April 2016, the CAA of Mongolia unilaterally withdrew permission without any valid grounds. The Air Services Agreement stipulates the specific three grounds based on which Mongolia could possibly revoke the permission of a Kazakh designated carrier and none of these apply to Air Astana. Despite intensive efforts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industry and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Air Astana itself, the CAA of Mongolia has not reversed its revocation quoting a range of ungrounded and changing list of reasons.