Kazakhstan is designing a city around drone deliveries and air taxis

An A2Z Longtail Cargo drone lands on the A2Z AirDock

Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, is building an entirely new smart city designed around drones and flying transportation systems from day one.

This week, California-based company A2Z Drone Delivery announced a partnership with Kazakhstan’s Alatau Advance Air Group as part of the country’s massive Alatau City project, a planned smart city that aims to integrate next-generation air mobility directly into daily life.

The partnership officially launched during the opening ceremony of the UAM Test Center Eurasia in Alatau, where companies demonstrated technologies that could eventually support everything from drone deliveries to emergency response operations and even passenger air taxis.

While drone demonstrations and futuristic transportation concepts have become increasingly common worldwide, Kazakhstan’s approach stands out because the country is attempting to design the infrastructure, regulations, and urban planning simultaneously, instead of retrofitting existing cities later. That’s a major difference.