kazakhstan makes foreign policy magazine's "least safe places to fly" list, the only country in the notoriously dangerous-to-fly former soviet union to make the cut!
it's a bit strange how much they bust on kazakhstan air since that airline no longer exists. kaz air was replaced by air astana (KZ's current national carrier) which happens to be the one kazakhstani airline that isn't on the EU's blacklist. air astana is actually nicer than most u.s. carriers. i took it for two domestic flights, plus my trip to dubai. the planes were quite modern and it had the feel of a european carrier.
it's the smaller airlines that mostly operate regional flights and flights to other former soviet republics that are so scary. i mentioned scat airlines here. it was the only airline that flew to taraz, our home for most of 2010. if the airline had a frequent flier program, we'd surely have a free scat ticket by now.
