First Scheduled Flight from Kazakhstan Arrives in Budapest

At the launch ceremony of SCAT Airlines, Levente Magyar, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, recalled that Hungary hosted the summit of the Organization of Turkic States last week and that it can now be said that our country is pursuing strategic cooperation with these countries.

He emphasized that the cooperation has an emotional basis, but the relations are also important because the role of the Turkic states is becoming increasingly important in international politics and economics. “We are talking about a total area of several million square kilometers, with a population of hundreds of millions, developing military potential, and enormous economic prospects, and because of all these factors, the world’s major powers are all seeking relations and cooperation with these states,” he pointed out.

“Let us not forget that these states share enormous raw material resources, from which Hungary, like many other European countries, also benefits. Therefore, we cannot overemphasize what it means for us to have such deep ties with the Organization of Turkic States and to participate in its work as an observer member,” he added.

Levente Magyar explained that

Kazakhstan, with its vast territory and significant raw material resources, is an extremely important member of this group of countries, with which Hungary has long maintained close bilateral relations.

“Hungary has long sought to establish direct air links with all its partners, including Kazakhstan, because if there is a direct connection in the physical sense, it brings movement, tourism, and greater interest among students, although Kazakhstan already sends 250 higher education students to Hungary each year under a state scholarship program,” he said.

The State Secretary also pointed out that direct connections can give a big boost to business relations. He highlighted that this already exists with Azerbaijan, there are several with Türkiye, and work is underway to establish air links with Uzbekistan. “This flight will create direct links with Kazakhstan, which we hope will soon be extended to other major Kazakh cities. And with Kyrgyzstan, just a few days ago, when the president was here, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán discussed opening a direct flight as soon as possible,” he said.

This means that we will soon reach a point where there will be direct flights to all five cooperating and member states within the Turkic Council,”

he added.

“We thank SCAT Airlines for its interest and for launching its first flight within Central Europe in Hungary. This reflects everything I have said about the special relationship between Hungarians and Kazakhs and the fact that not only do we consider the Turkic states to be strategic partners, but they also consider us to be strategic partners, and there is a healthy reciprocity in this,” Magyar stressed. “I have high hopes that this flight will be viable in the long term and that the current two weekly flights will soon be expanded to five (…) and that this will then lead to more flights between Kazakhstan and Hungary,” he concluded.

Via MTI, Featured photo via MTI/Purger Tamás