BERLIN – One of the leading airlines in Central Asia, Air Astana, has released its most recent passenger numbers from 2021. 

The Air Astana group carried a total of 6.617 million passengers in 2021. That makes a year-on-year increase of 79%.

Air Astana itself carried 3.555 million passengers, while its subsidiary FlyArystan carried a total of 3.062 million passengers, which is an increase of 109% for the low-cost carrier.

The carrier opened 4 new international routes and resumed many others, such as Tbilisi, Male, and London.

The airline transported 12,072 tons of cargo on scheduled, and 6,700 tons of cargo on charter flights. This is a 30% and 45% increase compared to 2020.

The airline also added 3 brand new Airbus A321LRs and one A320 to its fleet.

President and CEO of the Air Astana Group commented on these numbers, stating that “These figures represent a strong recovery from the Covid-19 affected 2020. Total carriage of more than 6.6 million customers is the highest ever recorded in the history of the airline.”

“In large part this was driven by the strong performance of FlyArystan, which in only its second full year of operation carried almost as many customers as Air Astana, driven by low fares, mainly on routes within Kazakhstan, as a result of its ultra-competitive cost structure.”

“FlyArystan is therefore on track to fulfill its core mission of increasing mobility by air across the country for Kazakhstan’s citizens”.