Three European airlines have asked Kyrgyzstan for data on passenger demand for possible flights. This is stated by Manasbek Samidinov, chairman of the board of Airports of Kyrgyzstan. Among the interested companies he named Lufthansa and, with the caveat "if I am not mistaken", Smartwings. The third airline has not been named.
A request for demand data is an early stage: it is how a carrier checks whether a market has enough passengers before discussing schedules, frequencies and aircraft type. Airports of Kyrgyzstan is sharing this data with the airlines. According to Samidinov, one of the companies will most likely start flights this year, but which one, to which cities and how often has not been named. No final agreements exist: the carriers still have to assess commercial prospects and decide. Less than two months of the year remain.
There is context behind the interest. In May 2026 the EU Air Safety Committee decided to remove Kyrgyzstan-certified airlines from the EU air safety list, where the country had been since 2006; the decision was later set out in a European Commission regulation. One distinction matters: this decision concerns Kyrgyz carriers and does not by itself mean that European airlines have decided to fly to Kyrgyzstan. They make such decisions on commercial demand. Restrictions on Kyrgyz carriers in the United Kingdom remain: the audit to leave the UK list is set for April 2027, as we reported here: https://www.flycentralasia.com/news/en/kyrgyzstan-uk-air-safety-list-audit-april-2027-us-audit-preparation-warsaw-frankfurt-talks/
The Kyrgyz side is also working on several European destinations in parallel. Samidinov discussed a possible direct Bishkek–Prague service with the Czech transport minister, and the next step is a visit by a Kyrgyz delegation to Prague airport: https://www.flycentralasia.com/news/en/kyrgyzstan-czech-republic-discuss-bishkek-prague-direct-flight/
Manas International Airport has signed a sister-airport agreement with Germany's TRIWO Hahn, with the parties citing passenger and cargo services and attracting airlines: https://www.flycentralasia.com/news/en/manas-and-germanys-triwo-hahn-become-sister-airports/
In June Samidinov named Germany as the first European destination and spoke of 2027. That was in the context of flights on Airbus A321 aircraft; a contract for two such aircraft was signed in March 2026. He links the delivery to Asman Airlines with May 2027, which we covered here: https://www.flycentralasia.com/news/en/kyrgyz-state-carrier-large-jets-plan-spare-parts-delay/
Our assessment: the demand-data request shows that, after the EU restrictions were lifted, European carriers are looking at Kyrgyzstan as a potential market, but several steps remain between a request and a schedule, and a timeline of "before the end of 2026" looks optimistic against the earlier statements about 2027. For airports, tour operators and travel companies, the most useful thing is to prepare their own data on demand, seasonality and tourist and diaspora flows, since that is what airlines ask for. For Kyrgyz carriers the question is long-haul aircraft, which they do not yet have. This is the view of flycentralasia.