Kazakhstan national carrier, Air Astana has recently reported 2022 as being its best performing year ever.
In a statement issued by the airline on their official site, the carrier discloses that in 2022 they carried 7.35 million passengers. This generated a operating profit after tax of $78.4 million from a total revenue of $1.03billion.
In comparison to 2021, the operating profit is an impressive 115% higher total showing a great recovery from the pandemic. Furthermore, the total revenue of $1.03billion is a 36% increase in total revenue and its total passengers carried is up by 11%.
All of these metrics add up to be the best performing year for the carrier in its 20 year history.
Commenting on the results, the President and CEO of the Air Astana Group, Peter Foster said: “The group significantly exceeded expectations despite political unrest in Kazakhstan in January and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February.”
“Revenue loss caused by the closure of routes to, from and over Russia was more than compensated for by increased capacity development to Europe, Asia, India and the Caucasus”.
FlyArystan also sees incredible performance
On top of Air Astana’s incredible performance, their low cost subsidiary, FlyArystan, also reported a highly successful 2022.
Although the 4 year old airline didn’t get into specifics about its statistics, Peter Foster did mention: “FlyArystan has grown by 366% since its inaugural year of 2019. It has a great future, as this region probably has the fastest growing low-cost travel market in the world today”.
Foster has also previously indicated that FlyArystan has accounted for the majority of the traffic growth in the last year.
He has also mentioned that FlyArystan and the wider airline group will likely have an even more successful 2023, surpassing the figures made in 2022.
However, despite the success, Foster also pointed out that their will be headwinds to overcome this year too.
This is because airport and service provider resource and supply limitations continue to the affect the airline. Plus, ongoing inflationary pressure and recent technical issues with the Pratt and Whitney PW1000G series of engines being fitted to its new A320neo and E190-E2 family jets are also affecting the airline.
A brief history of Air Astana
The history of Air Astana goes back to the beginning of the century, when operations commenced on the 15th May 2002. Air Astana began flights with a wide range of short and medium haul aircraft including Fokker 50s, Boeing 737NG family aircraft and 757s.
A successful start for the airline was followed by their current president, Peter Foster taking the helm in 2005. An uninterrupted growth throughout the years came after this with more additions to the fleet.
These included a small fleet of 767s joining its 757 fleet and replacing its 737 fleet with A320 family aircraft.
In more recent years, the airline has since begun upgrading its aircraft to the next generation of jets. From 2016, it took on its first A320neo and in 2021 it acquired its first A321neo LR variant and E190-E2. This fleet upgrade allowed the airline to bid farewell to its older A320ceos, 757s and E190s
Now with a successful fleet upgrade, the airline boasts an impressive average fleet age of 4.2years comprising of 29 aircraft.
Of course, we can’t ignore when their low-cost FlyArystan was created in 2019. The low-cost airline has helped the Air Astana group as a whole tap in to more markets closer to home in Kazakhstan and overall has been a massive success story in Air Astana’s history.
