Air Astana — BrandWiki

Air Astana

Overview

Air Astana JSC

trade name	Air Astana Group
native name	«Эйр Астана» АҚ
native name lang	kk
romanized name	Eir Astana AQ
type	Public company
traded as	lse: AIRA kase: AIRA
industry	Aviation
founded	August 29, 2001
hq location city	Almaty

Air Astana JSC, commonly known as Air Astana, is the flag carrier airline of Kazakhstan, with its corporate headquarters in Almaty. Founded in 2001 as a joint venture between the Government of Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna (51%) and BAE Systems (49%), the airline commenced operations in May 2002, launching its first regular scheduled domestic flight between Almaty and Astana. In 2024, Air Astana became a dual-listed company with shares traded on both the Astana International Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.[3]

Air Astana is part of the Air Astana Group, which also includes FlyArystan, Kazakhstan's first low-cost carrier launched in 2019. FlyArystan initially operated under Air Astana's air operator certificate but received its own certificate in 2024, enabling it to operate independently as a wholly owned subsidiary.[4]

The airline holds a dominant position in the Central Asian aviation market, commanding approximately 69% of Kazakhstan's domestic air travel and around 40% of the intra-regional market, which covers routes within Central Asia and parts of the

History

Air Astana was described by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation in January 2012 as having "performed better in its first decade than just about any other start-up carrier".[8] Originally intended to be a purely domestic airline, BAE Systems later agreed in mid 2001 to participate in the proposed startup at the request of Kazakhstan's then head of state, President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Their assistance was requested to facilitate an air radar contract. This was then negotiated with the Government of Kazakhstan.

Richard Evans, BAE Systems' chairman, was considered instrumental to the success of the deal. The radar contract never materialized, however, and subsequent senior management changes and strategic reviews at BAE Systems led to the closure of its offices in Kazakhstan. Additionally, despite the support of Nazarbayev, the start-up, initially seen as a foreign entity, faced immediate and vocal opposition from many elements of Kazakhstan's media and political establishment.

2002–2019

Despite facing opposition and a lack of support, Air Astana launched its operations under the leadership of its first president, Lloyd Paxton, a former executive of British Airways. After a few short-lived pre-operational leaders, the airline leased its first three Boeing 737s from the International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) and started commercial operations on 15 May 2002.

Later in 2003, the airline leased Fokker 50s from Aircraft Finance Trading BV (AFT) and three Boeing 757s from Pegasus Leasing Corp. In its first full year of operations, Air Astana declared a net profit in 2003. When Air Kazakhstan, the previous flag carrier, declared bankruptcy in February 2004, Air Astana expanded its operations from its domestic network to key international routes including Dubai, Istanbul, Moscow, Beijing, Frankfurt, and London.

Early growth pains and disagreements over fleet plans and hub strategy led to tensions between the shareholders and a management change in the autumn of 2005. Peter Foster, a former executive of Cathay Pacific who had led the rehabilitation team at in 1999 before a spell as CEO at Royal Brunei Airlines, was appointed as the airline's president on 1 October 2005. Long-term development plans and management structures were established that have remained largely unchanged since then. The airline has been consistently profitable and was listed in the top 20 most profitable airlines in terms of net margin in the world for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012, according to Airline Business and Air Finance Journal, which ranked it 20th in its 2015 survey of global airline financial ratings, with a score of BBB−.

In an article on BAE Systems' offset programmes (10/10/13) the Financial Times stated, "BAE's 49 percent stake in Kazakhstan's Air Astana became one of the company's highest-yielding investments".[9]

Air Astana received its first Airbus A320neo in November 2016.[10] Until 8 December 2016, Air Astana was the only Kazakh airline allowed to fly to the European Union.[11]

Air Astana was the official air carrier of Expo 2017[12] and the official carrier and general partner of the 2017 Winter Universiade, which took place from 29 January to 8 February 2017 in Almaty. Also, in 2017, Air Astana took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo,[13] and in 2018, its first Embraer 190-E2.[14] The Embraer aircraft featured a special Snow leopard livery[15] to draw global attention to the threat of extinction faced by this large wild cat, which is a native to the mountain ranges of southern Kazakhstan. Air Astana also donated to Kazakhstan's Zoology Association, which is taking urgent action to protect the diminishing numbers of Snow leopards in the country.

In 2018, Air Astana marked its 16th anniversary with the opening of a new Aviation Technical Centre at Astana's international airport, which enabled Air Astana to undertake all aircraft engineering and servicing requirements up to a heavy maintenance level.[16] Air Astana decided to establish a low-cost brand in 2018.[17]

In 2019, Air Astana took delivery of the first Airbus A321LR aircraft under an operating lease agreement with Air Lease Corporation and became the first operator of the aircraft type in the CIS.[18] Also in 2019, Air Astana became the first airline in Kazakhstan able to independently perform heavy maintenance C1 and C2 checks on Airbus family aircraft at its engineering bases in Almaty and Astana.[19]

2020–present

In 2020, due to entry and exit restrictions imposed by several countries to limit the spread of COVID-19, 95% of Air Astana flights were cancelled between 22 March and 14 April 2020, with only 140 flights operated instead of almost 2,900.[20] Air Astana CEO in its message to passengers assured that all requests for rebooking and refunds will be managed and that "in 18 years, Air Astana has never failed to meet its obligations to customers. That commitment is absolute and will not change".[21] Air Astana gradually restored its domestic flights from May 2020 and international flights from June 2020.[22]

In 2021, Air Astana received the highest level 5-star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating by Skytrax;[23] and became the first airline from the CIS and Southeast Asia to successfully pass an APEX audit, with Diamond status being awarded for minimizing and preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus during flights.[24]

Operations

Activity in Russia

In September 2002, the airline launched flights between Astana and Moscow with a frequency of 3 times a week and daily flights between Almaty and Moscow performed by Boeing 737-700. In 2014, the number of weekly services on the Astana – Moscow route was increased to 9 flights a week, and Almaty – Moscow flights up to 14. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline operated 54 weekly services on 11 routes to Russia: Almaty – Moscow performed by Airbus A321 and Boeing 767, Astana – Moscow, Almaty – St Petersburg performed by Airbus A320 and Astana – Novosibirsk, Astana – Yekaterinburg, Astana – Omsk, Astana – St Petersburg, Almaty – Kazan, and Almaty – Samara performed by Embraer 190.

After a pandemic-driven halt from March to May 2020, the airline resumed services from Almaty and Astana to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, and between Almaty and St Petersburg, both operated in codeshare with its long-term code-share partner S7 Airlines of Russia. In addition, FlyArystan started operating from Karaganda International Airport to Moscow Domodedovo, and from Almaty to Novosibirsk.

On 11 March 2022, the group suspended all flights to, from, and over Russia due to sanctions and restrictions imposed on several essential business partners as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Activity in Central Asia and Caucasus

Air Astana has built on its geographical strength by expanding its network to cover all key cities of the region with short-haul flights.

In Central Asia and the Caucasus, the airline flies to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) both from Almaty and Astana. Following the global pandemic, all these routes, which were temporarily suspended from March to May 2020, were resumed, and FlyArystan started operating in Kutaisi (Georgia).

Activity in China and Korea

Before the pandemic, the airline operated daily flights to Beijing from both Almaty and Astana and flights to Ürümqi in Xinjiang. Since July 2020, passenger charter flights have been resumed to Chengdu International Airport, in addition to regular all-cargo charters to various points in China with a partially-converted Boeing 767. In reflection of increasing passenger demand, the aircraft was re-converted to a passenger configuration in September 2021.

Following the pandemic, flights that had been operated daily to Seoul (Korea) from Almaty and twice a week from Astana have been reduced to a once-weekly flight between Almaty and Seoul because of travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Korea. Flights between Almaty and Hong Kong have been indefinitely suspended.

As of May 2023, all flights to Beijing and Seoul have been restored to their pre-pandemic frequencies.

ICAO and the EU

The airline's international route development was heavily influenced by regulatory factors from April 2009 until April 2014. In April 2009, an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), found the Kazakhstan Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) to be non-compliant in key areas of regulatory oversight. This resulted in, except for Air Astana, a blanket ban of all Kazakhstan-registered airlines from flying to, from, or within the European Union by the EU's Air Safety Committee[37] (ASC), until the ban was lifted on 8 December 2016. Air Astana was exempted from the ban "...taking into account oral and written presentations made...." particularly the registration of its aircraft with the Department of Civil Aviation of Aruba, a Netherlands-dependent territory, and its operations safety management programme as presented to the ASC. However, it was included in the ASC's Annex B, restricting its EU operations to the level of frequencies and fleet operated at the time of imposition of the ban in July 2009. The ASC removed the fleet restriction in November 2012 for the Boeing and Airbus fleets based on the airline's fleet renewal programme but retained the restriction on Embraer aircraft. On 10 April 2014, the ASC lifted the frequency restrictions based on the airline's safety performance, including the Safety Audit of Foreign Airlines (SAFA) monitoring programme results, as well as continuing transparent communications. This allowed the airline to start planning for new destinations in Europe and increased its daily service to Frankfurt from Astana, a 6x weekly service to Amsterdam from Atyrau, and a 4x weekly service to London. The airline subsequently commenced service between Astana and Paris in April 2015. The restrictions on the Embraer aircraft, which were the last to be banned from the EU, were removed in December 2015.[38]