Oral Ak Zhol Airport

Facilities

It is a small airport servicing medium-sized airliners. It has parking for four jets. This airport has one terminal. The airport also serves the nearby town of Aksai, which provides the majority of airport passenger traffic, being the "capital" of the gas industry in West Kazakhstan. In the past, a weekly international charter flight was operated by Astraeus Airlines from Oral to London Gatwick/London Stansted; this was subsequently operated by Air Astana to Amsterdam; however, the route was terminated, along with other Air Astana flights, due to the poor condition of the runway. The airport runway and facilities were inspected by Mott MacDonald to confirm that its substandard condition prevented the airport from accommodating larger jet aircraft. On 17 April 2013, the decision was made to transfer the airport's ownership back to the government for runway reconstruction.

A new terminal was built and opened in April 2022. It aims to double the capacity of the airport to 600 thousand people per year.

Airlines and destinations

|Air Astana|Almaty, Astana, Frankfurt | Centrum Air | Tashkent (begins ) |FlyArystan|Almaty, Aqtau, Astana, Şymkent Seasonal charter: Antalya, Sharm El Sheikh |Qazaq Air|Aqtöbe, Atyrau |SCAT Airlines| Qarağandy, Taraz, Türkıstan **Seasonal charter: **Sharm El Sheikh, Antalya, Phuket | Sunday Airlines| Seasonal charter: Antalya

Ground transport

Bus

The No 12 municipal bus line connects Ak Zhol International airport with centrally located Uralsk train station.

Taxi

There are private taxi cabs available at the airport parking lot.

Accidents and incidents

• On 15 April 2006, a British Airways Boeing 747, G-BNLA, operating as flight number BA10 from Sydney to London via Bangkok with 354 passengers and 18 crew made an emergency landing at Uralsk Airport after a fire warning light went on in the cockpit. Although the only airport's landing strip is certified for operation of medium-sized aircraft the crew managed to perform a safe landing. There were no fatalities or reportable injuries, however the airport did not have the correct size of air stairs to reach the aircraft doors, the largest passenger aircraft that had operated on a regular basis previously had been an Air Astana Boeing 757. As the 747 was deemed too heavy for take-off smaller size aircraft were sent from Moscow and Bucharest to ferry the passengers to London.
• On 28 August 2009, an Itek Air Boeing-737-200 en route from Bishkek to Moscow performed an emergency landing due to oil leak on the port engine.
• On 17 November 2011, a Bek Air Fokker 100 operating as flight BEK-2011 from Almaty to Uralsk made an emergency landing in Uralsk after a go-around having a landing gear and cargo door failure alerts.

References

References

1. [http://goszakup.ans.kz/AIP/index/Start_en.htm AIP Kazakhstan] {{webarchive. link. (30 June 2016)
2. "Sanctioned Russian buys into Kazakh airport in border region | Eurasianet".
3. "Новый терминал аэропорта Уральска будет работать в режиме опытной эксплуатации (ВИДЕО)".
4. "Centrum Air Announces 10 New Routes — Expanding Its Global Network". Centrum Air™.
5. "FlyArystan adds Aktau – Uralsk service from late-Oct 2020".
6. "FlyArystan Schedules New Domestic Routes From Nur-Sultan in 2Q22".
7. (31 October 2024). "FlyArystan Expands Sharm el Sheikh Network in 4Q24". AeroRoutes.
8. "Qazaq Air Adds Aktobe – Uralsk Service From Nov 2022".
9. (25 September 2025). "Scat Airlines Adds Karaganda Domestic Routes From late-Sep 2025". AeroRoutes.
10. "Поиск авиабилетов - Авиакомпания Sunday Airlines".
11. "BA010 BKK-LHR Divert - PPRuNe Forums".