Sitting at the crossroads of East and West, Kazakhstan's potential to become a central aviation hub is set to be boosted by infrastructure developments at the country's second-busiest airport
Air Astana has proven that the right balance between managing costs and investing in reliability and efficiency can produce a profitable result, even when economic conditions in your home market have brought recent uncertainty.
As the world’s ninth largest country it is no surprise that Kazakhstan has a real diversity of cultures, climate and infrastructure. But a renewed focus on its aviation sector and investment in tourism means the country will soon be appearing on more airline network maps.
Central Asian country, Kazakhstan has announced that it will expand its visa-free travel program to 19 countries across the world – allowing visitors to access the country for a period of 15 days without a visa.
Transaero announced plans to debut the Airbus A320 Family variant into its fleet from July 2015 in March last year when it confirmed a deal with ICBC Leasing, part of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to introduce six A321 aircraft on operating leases for delivery through March 2016. These are the first of up to 30 A321s that are due to enter the Russian carrier’s fleet within the next five years.
The airline has agreed to acquire seven Airbus A320neo (new engine option) Family aircraft on operating lease from ALC, comprising two A320neo, one A321neo and four A321neo Long Range (LR) jetliners. One A320neo is scheduled for delivery in spring 2016, with the remaining six aircraft being delivered in 2018 and 2019, with the first A321neoLRs due in 2019.
During the past couple of days we have been in conversation with many delegates during Routes Silk Road in Tbilisi, Georgia and here are some of the snippets of information we picked up from our discussions.
The carrier is planning to widen its European network with the addition of regular flights to Paris from autumn 2014 and to Prague in spring 2015, complementing established European routes from Frankfurt to Astana (daily) and Atyrau to Amsterdam, six times per week.
Every year almost two million passengers fly between Kazakhstan and Europe, a market that the airline sees a good potential for further growth in the years ahead having grown 51.3 per cent in the past five years.
