About Air Astana

Air Astana presents its annual results to mass media of Kazakhstan

Today Air Astana presented its annual results to mass media of Kazakhstan. Mr. Paxton, The President of Air Astana, informed journalists of the company’s financial and operational results, plans for development, and the challenges that have faced the company.

Air Astana is a joint stock company. The Government of Kazakhstan has 51% shareholding and BAE Systems 49%. The Government of Kazakhstan invested USD $8.67 million in the company and has already benefited from $30 million in taxes paid to it by Air Astana in less than three years of operations.

Lloyd Paxton commented: “Many start-up airlines often become bankrupt within the first two or three years of operation. However we have been able to produce profits, have no debts and achieve a good financial reputation in spite of the fact that all our operational expenses have significantly increased since we commenced operations. These cost increases have been seen in our ground handling charges, aircraft landing and parking fees, catering costs, air navigation charges and the most sharp increase has been fuel costs. Air Astana has been able to absorb these cost increases due to efficient management and has not requested any fare increases. In fact, on selected domestic routes we have introduced a number of special lower tariffs.”

Starting operations in May 2002 with three domestic destinations, the company now operates 31 international and 25 domestic routes, transporting 2,500 passengers every day. Air Astana has already developed an extensive domestic and international route network across Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle East and intends to expand its services still further.

Passenger safety is the paramount principle of Air Astana’s operations. Pilots, cabin crew and engineers have been trained overseas in the best training centres: Boeing, British Airways, CAE, Turkish Airlines, CFM/SNECMA. The air fleet has being maintained according to European Aviation Safety Agency standards (EASA/JAR). Air Astana is a full IATA member and participates in the IATA BSPs in different countries. A total of 47 inter-airline agreements have been concluded with international air carriers, including British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM/Northwest, Emirates and Turkish Airlines.

Both domestic and international Air Astana routes have been experiencing steady growth, both in number of passengers and frequency of flights. For example, passenger traffic has increased from 164,000 in 2002 to 387,000 in 2003 (a 135 % increase), and to 842,000 in 2004 (a 118% increase on the previous year). The number of flights increased by 115% between 2002 and 2003, and by 158% between 2003 and 2004.

The Air Astana fleet has grown from three aircraft to eleven. Currently Air Astana has one Boeing 737-800, two Boeing 737-700s, three Boeing 757-200s and five Fokker 50s. This year Air Astana plans to increase its fleet by a further 3 Boeing 757-200s that will allow additional domestic capacity and increased frequency on some international destinations. Atyrau-Istanbul and Aktau-Moscow will become new international destinations. The airline expects to carry 1.1 million passengers in 2005.

Air Astana provides regular sponsorship to vulnerable groups in society (young people, people with disabilities) and also offers special promotions to its passengers. For the forthcoming celebrations of 60th Anniversary of The Great Victoryin 1945, Air Astana will offer all veterans, from 1st to 31st May 2005, free flights on the airline within Kazakhstan, to Moscow and to Frankfurt. Accompanying persons or those of equivalent status to veterans will get a 50% discount.