Hi, dear flight-report members and readers!
This FR, continuing the series about Kazakh aviation, covers a domestic flight from Almaty (ALA) to Oskemen / Ust-Kamenogorsk (UKK) on an old classic B737-500 of SCAT Airlines. Please don't get distracted by the incorrect destination (NQZ) in the header - I have to enter it because the flight-report airport database contains only 3 Kazakh airports: ALA, NQZ and CIT. I kindly ask the moderators to add Oskemen (UKK/UASK) airport to the database, so I'll be able to correct the destination.
SCAT Airlines And Its Fleet
SCAT (DV) is the second-largest airline in Kazakhstan, founded in 1997 and having quite a solid domestic and international network. Unlike the KZ flag carrier (Air Astana), DV is allowed to serve flights to Russia since 2022.
At the end of 2025 it's mainline fleet consists of various narrowbodies:
B737 MAX9: 5 units in Y213 layout. DV is the 1st operator of the type in CIS.
B737 MAX8: 7 units in several layouts (C12Y162, Y186, Y189).
B737-800: 8 units in Y189 layout.
B737-700: 1 uint in Y149 layout.
B737-300: 1 unit in Y146 layout.
B737-500: 3 units in Y126 layout.
CRJ-200: 3 units in Y50 layout.
Avgeek-wise, the 4 latter types are the most interesting part of DV fleet. Speaking of classic 737s, I already flew B737-400 in EU back in 2018, and B737-300 in Bolivia back in 2019, so this time B737-500 was my target to fulfill the "classic mission". DV operates with B735s some short-haul domestic routes like Almaty - Oskemen and Almaty - Taraz (DMB). The one-way ticket ALA-UKK costed around 44 EUR 6 days before departure.
DV also has a leisure subsidiary Sunday Airlines, operating flights from major Kazakh cities to "sunny" destinations under DV code with the fleet of 1 B767-300ER (the only widebody in SCAT group) and 2 extremely rare B757-200s (thankfully, I made it to fly one of them on a trunk domestic route NQZ-ALA).
SCAT Airlines B737-500 LOPA
As LOPAs of DV fleet are not listed anywhere, I'll show the screenshots of B735 LOPA from online check-in on DV website. B735 has full-economy cabin, consisting of 126 seats in 3-3 layout.
The front part of the cabin: row 1-9.
The rear part of the cabin: rows 30-41 (notice the numeration gap).
Boeing 737-500 Operators
Even though 737 Classic family is vanishing from passenger service, the -500 modification remains in quite noticeable number in the world, and the number of its operators is not insignificant (though, their B735 fleets are generally very small). It would be useful to list them.
1) Aero Contractors: 1 unit (C8_Y96).
2) Aeroregional: 2 units (Y129).
3) Air North: 4 units (Y122).
4) Air Peace: 1 unit.
5) Airzena Georgian Airways: 1 unit.
6) Alexandria Airlines: 1 unit (Y121).
7) Ariana Afghan Airlines: 1 unit.
8) ATA Airlines: 2 units.
9) AVA Airlines: 3 units.
10) Badr Airlines: 1 unit (C8_Y105).
11) Caspian Airlines: 3 units.
12) Klasjet: 1 unit (Y104) plus 2 units (C56).
13) LAM Mozambique Airlines: 1 unit (Y132).
14) Libyan Express: 1 unit (C8_Y105).
15) Mont Gabaon Airlines: 1 unit.
16) NAM Air: 3 units (C8_Y112).
17) SCAT Airlines: 3 units (Y126).
18) Sepehran Airlines: 3 units (Y132) plus 1 unit (Y130) plus 1 unit (Y126).
19) Shirak Avia: 2 units (Y131).
20) Sideral Linhas Aereas: 2 units (C52).
21) Sierra Pacific Airlines: 2 units.
22) Sky Mali: 1 unit.
23) Sriwijaya Air: 3 units (Y130).
24) SyrianAir: 1 unit.
25) Transair: 1 unit.
26) UTair aviation: 13 units (Y126) plus 1 unit (C8Y106).
27) Varesh Airlines: 1 unit (Y126).
Almaty International Airport (ALA)
ALA, located north-east of Almaty and connected with the city by bus service, consists of 2 adjacent terminal - aging domestic T1 (opened in the end of 2003) and very modern international T2 (opened in 2024).
Domestic T1 from outside.
International T2 from outside.
Let's explore T2 first.
Arrivals hall with telecom stores, ATMs and money exchangers.
Check-in hall of T2.
The most interesting part of the T2's hall is the airport museum with a mock-up of the very first soviet terminal, which serves now as a business aviation terminal.
A souvenir shop near the junction between T2 and T1.
Kazakh national souvenirs.
Let's go to the domestic T1.
A general view of the landside T1.
Vending machine and flowermat.
T1 check-in hall with SCAT and FlyArystan counters.
Self check-in machines of Air Astana.
The Kazakh national flag.
Domestic gates area.
Planespotting From T1 ALA
A bit of late evening planespotting from T1.
A pair of KC A321s (EI-KDA and -KDI; the latter was transferred from OZ).
The second-youngest A20N (EI-KFH) of FlyArystan, which was in passenger service less than 4 months and is stored from October 2025. The youngest one (EI-KFI) was stored right after delivery. Air Astana group uses its A20Ns as engine donors for more efficient A21Ns in light of PW durability issues.
Boarding
Boarding was delayed by 20 minutes and commenced from gate 4.
The Aircraft
My flight DV727 from ALA to UKK was operated by 1993-built UP-B3722, sporting the newer SCAT livery (its sisterships UP-B3723 and UP-B3724 sport the more beautiful older livery with gold letters "SCAT"). As it was not possible at all to make photos of the aircraft from T1 ALA, I made it later in UKK.
Portside CFM56 engine and fuselage view from the jetbridge. On the backdrop is a CZ A21N from Urumqi.
The 1L and 1R doors.
The Cabin
Views of the cabin during boarding.
The 2L/R doors, the adjacent lavatories and the crew's jumpseat.
The galley near 2L.
Tour de lavatorie (these oldschool vibes!)
The Economy Seat
My seat 40A is located in the penultimate row, which has 2 windows.
The seats are essentially the same as in B752 of Sunday Airlines, but even narrower: the seatwidth is humble 16.5" (one can guess that DV's sole B733 features the same seats). Though, for this short flight it's not a problem. The seat has hard seat pocket and tray table.
The seatpocket content: safety card, inflight magazine and waste bag.
The overhead panel is vintage and has personal airvents. My light turn-on button was broken.
The overhead bins are vintage as well.
The Flight
Cabin before departure.
Apron view of the domestic T1.
KC B763 (EI-KEA, it's youngest sistership EI-KEC was reviewed here) and the old soviet terminal (serving for business aviation).
An OZ A333 from ICN (sorry for the blurry photo, we were quickly taxiing by in the darkness).
Taxiing to the runway.
Cabin lighting is dimmed before takeoff.
Takeoff from ALA.
The cabin after takeoff.
Cabin lighting turned on before inflight service is commenced.
On domestic DV flights only a bottle of water is served. The crew were friendly.
Descending to UKK and landing.
Parking position near FS A320.
The Cabin After The Flight
Cabin views upon disembarkment.
The Aircraft After The Flight
And, eventually, the aircraft views from the proper angles.
Oskemen International Airport (UKK)
UKK has the separate terminal for arrivals.
FID for arrivals.
The arrival terminal from outside.
The departure terminal from outside. I spent the night in this terminal, as the airport is quite far from the town, and the next morning I had the next flight from UKK on an another interesting narrowbody aircraft.
Thank you for your attention and see you in the next FRs!
