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Foreign airlines servicing Kazakhstan will no longer be forced to switch all of their flights from the former capital city Almaty to the new capital of Astana.

Kazakhstan's government had said that airlines would have to use Astana as their single point of entry but the order was criticised by the carriers, who said that the move would not be commercially viable.

National carrier Air Astana has a monopoly on the route between the two cities.

In a softening of its position on the move to Astana, the government has now said that airlines could continue to serve Almaty if one flight from each foreign destination lands in Astana.

Officials have been asked by Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov to work on a plan to encourage half of all foreign flights to land in Astana and half in Almaty, reported Reuters.

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