Air Astana to expand fleet by 2019
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan’s national carrier Air Astana plans to expand its
fleet to 36 planes by 2019.
Currently, the fleet of the airline consists of 30 planes, the
company told Trend Agency.
The renewing program started in 2011. Since that time, the company
bought 22 planes directly from the factory.
Over the past 3.5 years, the airline decommissioned its
turboprops Fokker 50 and replaced them with new Embraer 190 jets.
In addition, some contracts on purchasing six new planes, Airbus
A320s and three Boeing 767s, were signed.
“Over the last year, Air Astana bought six new planes including one
Embraer E190, four Airbus A320s and one Boeing B767,” the company
said. “Deliveries were made in accordance with an earlier
plan.”
The airline is not afraid of the growing competition in case of
withdrawal of other Kazakh airlines from the black list of the
European Union and the opening of their flights to Europe.
"The airline is successfully competing with European carriers on
routes from Kazakhstan to Europe; it will continue to raise the
level of service, and replenish the fleet with modern new planes,"
the press service said.
The company went on adding that it plans to open a number of new
regular flights soon.
In particular, the planes of the airline will begin to carry out
the direct Astana-Bangkok flight in the middle of December 2014. In
addition, it plans to open an Astana-Paris flight in the spring of
2015.
The aeronautical authorities of Kazakhstan and France agreed on
opening an Astana- Paris flight last week.
Also the plans of the airline for 2015 include the opening of an
Astana-Dushanbe flight.
Air Astana is a joint venture of the Kazakh National Welfare Fund
Samruk-Kazyna (51 percent) and the UK BAE Systems (49 percent). The
planes of the airline started implementing regular flights in 2002,
and currently operate flights on 60 international and domestic
destinations. In 2013, the airline transported 3.7 million
passengers.