Air Astana - Astana routes
http://www.airastana.com/
Aeroflot, Soviet-era
During the Soviet era, this huge nation was connected by an extensive flight network. However, for the most part these networks were highly centralized, like much of the infrastructure of the day. The only international flight you could take from Central Asia was from Samarkand to Kabul via Termez. Otherwise you pretty much had to fly through Moscow. That said, inter-Central Asia connections were extensive.
http://www.romanelkin.com/2013/03/06/90-let-grazhdanskoj-aviacii/
Central Asian Railroad Routes
Because railroad infrastructure is expensive and difficult to build, the Soviet-era network is still largely in place today, with new connections (between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, for example) coming online only in the last year. The rail network remains both a symbol of the Soviet era to outsiders and a still quite common mode of transit to large groups of citizens from former Soviet countries.
"Central Asian rail corridors offer alternatives to the Trans-Siberian," International Railway Journal 53:2, February 2013, accessed on http://content.yudu.com/A21bv0/IRJFeb13/resources/index.htm
February 2013
Air Astana
Air routes, by contrast, can be established relatively quickly. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asia, each of the five countries set up a flag carrier with several international destinations. What makes air infrastructure interesting is that although relatively little is needed on the ground to have a flight (i.e., a runway, not thousands of miles of track), the act of flying is so expensive—both in terms of operational cost and the cost of the vehicles themselves—that a critical mass of passengers needs to be guaranteed for the venture to be worthwhile. because of and in spite of this, the destinations they choose to fly to speak to the economic, political, and cultural orientations of the five newly independent states, both taken individually and as an aggregate.
Air Astana, Kazakhstan's national airline, is one of two, along with Uzbekistan Airways, with international IATA certification. Both of these airlines represent the wealthier Central Asian nations, and, especially for Kazakhstan, those who have devoted serious time and money to forging international legitimacy outside of air travel. Notice too how Air Astana has the most robust two hub system in place: domestically, Almaty is still of prime social/cultural importance and the main hub city for transit, but the manufactured capital of Astana is steadily gaining influence (note the name of the air carrier). And flights to vacation spots like Antalya and Bangkok speak to the country's emergent middle class.
http://www.airastana.com/kaz/en/Routemap.aspx
Uzbekistan Airways
One noticeable trend is that ethnic ties are represented by the many connections between Central Asia and Turkic centers of the former USSR like Ufa, Kazan, Baku, and Simferopol, as well as by external Turkic centers like Urumqi and Istanbul. It is also worth noting that locations of large diaspora populations, such as New York and Tel-Aviv, are also destinations for the airline. One can make the argument that demand for flights is not always domestic and diaspora populations can influence flights in either direction. Yet, while a place like Seoul could be indicative of an interest in the Korean-Uzbekistani population, such a flight is more likely driven by significant South Korean investment in Central Asia. In this way, the route has cultural benefits but an economic driver.
Tajik Air
Further indication of the cultural import of destinations are Tajik Air flights to Kabul and Tehran – the only ones from Central Asia. These flights suggest an interest in maintaining ties with fellow Persian-speaking countries. Labor migrants are also a clear focus for Tajik Air, with many flights to Russian provincial cities like Irkutsk and Samara, as well as to industrial towns with only seasonal flights, like Surgut.
https://www.google.com/search?q=tajik+air+route+map&safe=off&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wD8_VIm7HLS1sQSr_oGAAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1513&bih=723&dpr=0.9#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=CQJe1wIz4H20mM%253A%3BVj8GiwyLxjubBM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fairlineroutemaps.s3.amazonaws.com%252Fmaps%252FTajik_Air.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.airlineroutemaps.com%252Fmaps%252FTajik_Air%3B850%3B558
Turkmen Airlines
Turkmenistan Airlines only flies to one Central Asian destination, Almaty. And none of the other countries' flag carriers fly to Ashgabat, making it the most isolated capital city in the region. It is also worth noting Turkmenistan Airlines traces its history back to 1927 (http://turkmenairlines.com/lang/en/istoriya-kompani/ ), long before the airline itself was an extant commercial entity, essentially making synonymous the country's national airline and its civil aviation history at large.
Air Kyrgyzstan
Air Kyrgyzstan's slate of destinations appears to be too modest for them to produce a route map. While Air Kyrgyzstan only flies to one Central Asian destination, Tashkent, Bishkek is well-served by the other countries' flag carriers with direct flights from Almaty, Astana, Dushanbe, and Tashkent. There is a notable absence of flights to Europe from here, as Air Kyrgyzstan has no IATA certification and is banned from flying to the EU. Outside of cultural and political indications, there are obviously other factors to consider—in this case, differences in economic strength divide Central Asian nations. Some countries have the resources to better maintain their flag carrier fleet and others, like Kyrgyzstan, have not kept up.
http://www.air.kg/page/about/214/161
Central Asian Flag Carrier International Flights
This is a map consolidating all the above route maps, showing the region-wide priorities. While connections to Moscow were maintained, new destinations like Istanbul and Urumqi acquired new importance. But the network of inter-Central Asia flights collapsed; there are now as many connections from Central Asia to Kuala Lumpur, Amritsar or Surgut as to Tashkent, once the hub of Central Asia. Though inter-regional travel certainly still happens between some of the Central Asian states, the absence of fast transit in terms of air travel is telling of lukewarm (at best) political relationships in the region. Finally, where Moscow was once the gateway to the outside world, the identity rebuilding project of these newly independent states is evident even in something as banal as their transit infrastructure. While flights out used to be oriented west to European Russia, the investment in flights to South and Southeast Asia might be an indication of the aspirations of a new Central Asia, oriented toward the South rather than the North.
Evangeline McGlynn
2014