Since the first flight was performed between Almaty
and Nur-Sultan (former Astana) on 15th May 2002, the airline has carried a
total of 44 million passengers and performed almost 500,000 flights. Air
Astana’s route network currently extends to more than 60 international and
domestic flights, with the fleet comprising of 34 Airbus, Boeing and Embraer
aircraft.
Air Astana was established in 2001 at the initiative
of the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who set the task of
creating a world-class airline to develop air transportation on domestic and international
flights in compliance with international technical standards and providing the
opportunity for training of Kazakhstan citizens.
The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and UK
company, BAE Systems PLC invested US$17 mln in the airline at the outset. Since
2002, Air Astana has paid more than US$435 million in taxes and other payments to
the state budget and has created over 5,000 professional jobs.The growth of
the company has been achieved entirely with internal and loaned funds, with no
demands on the state budget, which makes the airline one of the most profitable
state investments.
Air Astana continues to recruit young people who dream
of becoming pilots under the airline’s ab-initio program. Since 2009, Air
Astana has trained more than 200 young Kazakh ab-initio pilots at prestigious
international flight schools.
In May this year, Air Astana took a major initiative
by launching of FlyArystan, a low-cost airline. FlyArystan was created to
stimulate the domestic market and attract wider section of the Kazakh
population to travel by air and serve international destinations in the future.
This year also marked the arrival of Air Astana’s
second Embraer 190-E2 aircraft, with delivery of three further aircraft by the
end of 2019. Deliveries of the new fleet of Airbus A320neo also continues, with
13 aircraft scheduled to arrive by the end of 2020. Air Astana’s route network
includes more than 60 international and domestic flights, and the fleet
consists of 34 modern aircraft. The airline operates in full compliance with international
technical standards.
Air Astana’s commitment to deliver the very highest
levels of passenger experience has been recognized by the global travel website
TripAdvisor for the second year in succession, with the airline being named as
the best “Regional Asian Carrier” and best for “Passenger Comfort in Asia”. Air
Astana is also a seven-time winner of the Skytrax award for the Best Airline in
Central Asia and India.