LONDON – Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, never fails to impress when it comes to financial results.
Air Astana’s fleet grew with the recent induction of three additional Airbus A321LR aircraft in 2022. The tenth Airbus A321LR was delivered directly from Airbus’s plant in Hamburg on the 15th of December.
The low-cost arm of Air Astana, FlyArystan, has also increased its fleet by three Airbus A320neo aircraft and is also expecting to add another Airbus A320NEO before the end of this calendar year.
Overall, Air Astana’s group fleet now totals 42 jets, with a very young average fleet age of 5 years, making the airline operates one of the youngest and freshest fleets in the world.
Group’s Fleet Composition
The Air Astana Group’s fleet composition is lean and is comprised of both Boeing and Airbus. The group’s fleet is poised to rise by an additional induction of six airliners in 2023.
The highly anticipated wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners are slated for a 2025 and onwards delivery. This deal was made between the Kazakh flag carrier, and Air Lease Cooperation inked earlier this year.
The Kazakh airline has an extensive route network operated from its two hubs of Almaty and Nur-Saltan.
The airline has 42 routes, with 27 being international and 15 being domestic, and FlyArysta has 34 routes, with 8 international (namely being in the central Asian countries) and 26 domestic.
2022 has been a busy year for Air Astana, launching and re-launching regular flights in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
The airline launched flights to the Greek island of Heraklion and the Turkish city of Bodrum and resumed flights from Almaty to Bangkok and Beijing.
The low-cost airline FlyArystan also launched flights from Aktau to Baku, in Azerbaijan and the Turkish city of Istanbul. The Airline also resumed routes of; Shymkent-Kutaisi, Aktau-Dubai, and Shymkent-Dubai, respectively.
Moreover, the airline 2023 has plans to launch flights to Medina and Tel Aviv.
In this anniversary year, the airline also underwent its first C2-checks on two Airbus A320 aircraft flown by FlyArystan.
The central Asian airline also has been handed for the 10th time consecutively for the”Best Airline of Central Asia and the CIS, which illustrates the commitment of the airline to become the best in the region.
Peter Foste,r Air Astana Group President, and CEO, stated: “Despite the global and local challenges, we have been able to strengthen our position in both the regional and international markets, creating a base for new achievements.”
“We believe that the delivery of advanced aircraft to our fleets, such as Airbus A321LR and Boeing 787, brings a bright future ahead for Air Astana.”
“All of this would not be possible without the professionalism of our employees and customer support. Thank you for choosing us over the last 20 years.”
Training
Air Astana has one of the best training regimes in the region, with state-of-the-art facilities to train its crew.
As the airline is recruiting more pilots, flight attendants, and engineers, the airline is ready to train them from zero at the airline’s expense.
The state-of-the-art facility will be equipped with a full-motion flight simulator and a rescue training simulator next year in Astana.
Results
Since its launch in 2002, the Kazakh carrier has transported over 60 million passengers and more than 280,000 tonnes of cargo and mail.
As we are approaching the end of 2022, the airline forecasted that it is expected to carry more than 7 million passengers, which is approximately 12% more than in the previous year.
The airline stated that its profit hit US$65 million for the accounted 10 months in 2022, which is impressively 84% higher than in 2021.
Bottom Line
The airline is now becoming a new cross-road airline between the west and the east, as it realizes that its location serves them the right to compete with traditional airlines, Qatar, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines, as a ‘boutique alternative’ for travelers.
2023 will be an impressive year for the airline, with the introduction of new training facilities, which will further alleviate the airline’s capability in terms of safety and integrity.
Go Air Astana; you’ve grown impressively and never fail to impress.
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