Air Astana takes delivery of its first A321LR

Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s flag carrier, has taken delivery of its first A321LR on lease from Air Lease Corporation. The A321LR will join Air Astana’s fleet of 18 Airbus aircraft (eight A320s, four A321s, three A320neo and three A321neo).

Powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, Air Astana’s A321LR comprises 166 seats in a two-class configuration (16 Business Full lie flat and 150 Economy class seats) offering premium wide-body comfort in a single-aisle aircraft cabin. With this new A321LR, the Kazakhstan flag carrier will continue its strategy of growth and network expansion to European destinations as well as routes to Asia.

New Airbus A321-200neo LR aircraft for Air Astana

Air Lease Corporation has confirmed the delivery of one new Airbus A321-200neo LR aircraft on long-term lease to Air Astana. The aircraft, featuring Pratt & Whitney PW1133G engines, is the first of seven A321-200neo aircraft scheduled for delivery to Air Astana from ALC’s order book with Airbus.

“We are delighted to announce this first of seven ALC A321-200neo LR aircraft delivery to Air Astana today,” said Alex Khatibi, Executive Vice President of Air Lease Corporation. “The A321-200neo LR is instrumental to Air Astana’s fleet modernization program to support the airline’s extended range operations and expanding route network.”

Air Astana is the principal airline and flag carrier of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The airline operates scheduled domestic and international services from its main hub, Almaty International Airport, and from its secondary hubs, Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport and Atyrau Airport.

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Air Astana reports rise in operation profit for 1st six months of 2019

One of the leading airlines Central Asia, the Almaty based Air Astana has gone through some turbulent times in recent years, yet its latest results prove to be positive reading. In the first six months of this year the airline carrier around 2.1 million people and scored an operating profit of US$6.8 million, a massive improvement on the loss of nearly US$12 million in the same period last year. 

Economy class on Air Astana 767                                                             Photo Air Astana 

Air Astana signs Flight Directors as general sales agent for UK and Ireland

Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, has contracted with Flight Directors as its new General Sales Agent for the UK and Ireland, effective immediately.  The eight-times SkyTrax award winner, which offers daily flights to London Heathrow to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan’s capital, has also moved its UK sales and marketing team to a new dedicated office in Chertsey, Surrey, very close to the main hub airport.

“We are delighted to be teaming with Flight Directors as our new GSA and also being able to offer an enhanced reservations call centre offering daily coverage between 08:00hrs and 20:00hrs, except 25th December,” said Simon Rickman, Country Manager UK and Ireland.

Air Astana appoints Janet Heckman as independent non-executive director after airline celebrates its seventeenth anniversary

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FlyArystan hopes for 700,000 passengers this year with eyes on international routes

Photo FlyArystan

The new low-cost-carrier FlyArystan, created by the Kazakhstan flag carrier Air Astana is hoping to reach 700,000 passengers by the end of this year according to the airline's management.

The budget carrier started earlier this month with domestic routes may well be operating international routes by the end of the year, once more aircraft have been delivered.  The airline currently has two Airbus A320 aircraft, borrowed from Air Astana and has launched with six routes from Almaty, to Karaganda, Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), Pavlodar, Shymkent, Taraz and Uralsk.

Air Astana gets second Embraer E190-E2

The second of five E190-E2 arrives for Air Astana

Air Astana has received its second Embraer 190-E2 aircraft directly from the manufacturing plant in Brazil at the start of this week.  The new arrival is configured with 12 seats in business class and 96 in the economy cabin.

The airline will deploy the aircraft across Kazakhstan and also to cities in Russia, the capital of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Urumqi in China. The aircraft's first revenue flight is scheduled to take place on 12th March on the Almaty-Uralsk route.

From 1st April the carrier will increase the number of flights it operates to Tashkent, it will offer daily flights from Almaty,  while the service from Astana will fly every day except Saturday. 

First Embraer E190-E2 for Air Astana

                         The flag carrier of Kazakhstan, Air Astana welcomed its first Embraer E190-E2 jet at a special ceremony held today in Astana. "All of us at Air Astana are pleased to receive our first E190-E2, and we look forward to a smooth entry into service and a simple transition for our pilots. We know Embraer's E-Jets well, and have high expectations for their new generation aircraft in terms of economics, environmental impact, and levels of comfort and convenience for our customers," said Peter Foster, President of Air Astana.

Air Astana's first E190-E2 features a "snow leopard" livery, designed and hand painted by Embraer in the 'Profit Hunter' style. Air Astana's snow leopard joins the now famous Eagle, Tiger, and Shark E2s with the distinctive 'Profit Hunter' nose art. For Air Astana however, the paint scheme is designed to draw global attention to the threat of extinction faced by the wild cat. The snow leopard is an official symbol of Kazakhstan and is native to the country's southern mountain ranges.

Air Astana A320 runway excursion - on video

An investigation has been launched into the runway excursion at Astana International Airport in Kazakhstan of an Air Astana Airbus A320-200 on Tuesday 22nd May.

The Airbus A320-232 ran off the right side of the runway during landing, damaging an engine cowling that came into contact with a sign as the aircraft crossed two taxiways before rejoining the runway. The front of the engine appeared damaged and dented in photos posted to social media after the incident, however, there appears to be no other damage to the aircraft as a result of its going off the paved surfaces.

The incident was captured from inside the plane by one of the 97 passengers on board the aircraft on what was quite a windy day. Indeed, there were heavy thunderstorms in the area in the hours preceding the arrival of the  A320, registration P4-KBB and local media report that earlier high winds had caused destruction to a crane in the city.

Map showing where the aircraft left the runway

In the video, passengers can be heard applauding the captain after a relatively smooth touch down following a crosswind landing on the wet runway. Then the aircraft seems to move to the side, following which, a loud bang is heard and it becomes clear the aircraft had left the paved area of the runway and continues across the grass. Save for a few shouts and gasps, the atmosphere in the cabin seems remarkably calm and measured and a following cabin crew announcement sounds relaxed and in a typical style of the usual arrival message.

Air Astana Goes For E190 Replacement

Air Astana have announced they will be welcoming five Embraer E190-E2s on long-term lease deals from AerCap. Deliveres of the second-generation E-Jets will start in the autumn of next year and will replace the airline's existing E190 fleet.