One airport, and it is not a hub
Network School is in Astana, Kazakhstan, and the airport you want is NQZ, Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, roughly 20km from the city centre. There's no choice to make about which airport. Getting there is the harder part.
NQZ is Kazakhstan's second-busiest airport. It has plenty of flights to Central Asia, Turkey, the Gulf, Russia and China, and few to anywhere else. From Western Europe, expect one stop, most often Istanbul or Frankfurt. From the Gulf or South Asia, Dubai and Istanbul carry most of the traffic. From East and Southeast Asia, connections often go through a Gulf hub or Almaty. From North or South America, plan on two stops and a long day.
Almaty is a useful backup. It has more international flights than Astana, and the domestic hop between the two cities is short and frequent. If a route through Almaty is cheaper or better timed, it's a perfectly good way in.
Do not book flights first
The order matters more here than on a normal trip. Settle two things before you buy a ticket: your confirmed cohort dates, and your legal basis for entering Kazakhstan.
Cohorts run monthly, with the first Astana intake in October 2026. You get your exact start and end dates during the application process; there's no public calendar. A non-refundable long-haul ticket booked against a date you assumed is an expensive way to learn this.
The visa is the bigger risk. Many nationalities enter visa-free for 30 days. Others need an electronic visa, and a tourist e-visa can require an invitation from a licensed Kazakh tour operator, which takes weeks to arrange. Check your own case with the Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs before you spend money on flights.
Winter changes the maths
From roughly November to March, treat every connection as fragile. Astana sits on open steppe, and snow delays are a normal part of the season. A 60-minute connection that works in June is a bad idea in January.
Some rules for winter: give yourself at least two to three hours on any connection, route through a hub with several onward flights a day so a missed leg can be rebooked, and avoid arriving late at night if you can. Landing at 3am into a −25°C night with no plan for the last 20km is the most avoidable bad first day there is.
Pack your cold-weather outer layer in your carry-on. If your checked bag is delayed, the coat is the one thing you can't do without on arrival.
Airport to city, and getting around after
The airport is close to the centre by capital-city standards. Most people take a ride-hailing car, which is cheap compared with Western European or North American prices. Official taxis wait at the terminal. Agree the fare or use an app, and turn down unmetered offers from people who approach you inside the building.
In the city, ride-hailing is still what most people use. Astana has buses, and rail transit has been under development, so check what's running before you rely on it. Walking is pleasant for much of the year and punishing in deep winter, when the question stops being how far and becomes whether you want to be outside at all.
For your first arrival, ask Network School what arrival help there is and what time you can check in. Get the answer in writing before you fly.