Kazakhstan's Civil Aviation Committee (chaired by Saltanat Tompiyeva) and Switzerland's Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA, led by Laurent Noël) held talks in Astana on September 22. The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding granting designated airlines the right to operate up to 28 passenger flights per week, alongside a legal framework for unrestricted cargo operations. They also initialed the text of a draft full Air Services Agreement for future signature. Representatives of Air Astana, SCAT Airlines, SWISS International Air Lines and Basel Airport attended, along with officials from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Embassy. Switzerland said it is considering launching scheduled flights to Kazakhstan; no operating schedule exists yet — only the memorandum is signed and the draft agreement initialed.
