ROUTES CIS: Air Astana Extends Lufthansa Consulting Network Partnership

After the completion of this year’s Routes CIS forum in Donetsk, Ukraine it emerged that Lufthansa Consulting has been working on a project with Kazakhstan national carrier Air Astana to review the airline’s network and fleet strategy, taking into account the capacity constraints the airline is facing at Kazakhstan’s two main airports in Almaty and Astana.

Under the project, the consultancy developed a new hub structure for the airline focusing primarily on regional-to-regional connections that is meant to be easy to implement and to serve as backbone of its development in Kazakhstan. The company also revised the carrier’s five-year network and fleet plan in view of the new constraints and potential solutions for it. In line with the traffic projections, Lufthansa Consulting furthermore defined the minimum airport infrastructure requirements for the airline’s hub operation.

The contract is just one of a number of deals Lufthansa Consulting has with companies across the CIS, a key market for the company, according to Associate Partner, Thomas J. Niehaus, who is responsible for the CIS and Georgia. In an exclusive interview with The HUB this week, he said: “Routes CIS enabled us to connect with new people and potential clients as well as keep up to date with our existing network. We believe this was the best Routes CIS event so far and as an exhibitor Lufthansa Consulting found it was a good platform to get together with relevant industry representatives from the region.”

“The establishment of a dedicated representative for the CIS underlines our company's strong focus on this market and our project business already reflects this development. In Kazakhstan, for example, where the overall aviation market is in a transition phase, we are continuously working for airlines and airports. At the highest political level there are plans to introduce and strengthen international standards as well as to modernise the infrastructure,” he added.