Getting from Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport to the city

The light rail, at last

• Astana's LRT line 1 opened to the airport on 16 May 2026.
• The project spent years as a line of unfinished concrete columns along the airport road, and its completion is recent enough that most guides do not mention it.
• The line is 21.5 km long.
• Trains run every 5 to 10 minutes between 06:00 and 23:00.
• From the airport to Astana-Nurly Zhol, the main railway station, takes 40 to 50 minutes, calling at Baiterek and the National Museum on the way.
• The fare is reported at 200 tenge, payable by cash, bank card or contactless.

The buses, which are still the quick way to the centre

• Bus 10 runs between the airport and the city centre every 5 to 7 minutes.
• Bus 12 runs every 15 minutes.
• Both operate 06:00 to 23:00.
• The trip to the Baiterek monument, the centre of the new city, is about 30 minutes.
• Fares are reported between 90 and 180 tenge, so cheaper than the LRT and, for the central monuments, faster.
• Take the LRT for the railway station and the bus for the centre, which is a rare case of the older service still winning.

After 23:00

• Neither the LRT nor the buses run after 23:00.
• Astana takes late arrivals and the answer to them is a taxi, booked in an app rather than agreed at the kerb.
• Winter here reaches minus 30 and below. Waiting outdoors for anything is not a neutral decision between November and March, and this is the one airport on this site where that is a safety point rather than a comfort one.