Two new A320neos bring Air Astana’s new engine option fleet to six

Air Astana’s new engine option fleet grew to six (Air Astana)

Kazakhstan’s national carrier Air Astana has announced the arrival of a further two Pratt & Whitney PW1127G-powered Airbus A320neos in early July, thus bringing its fleet of the A320neo family to six. The aircraft will be operated primarily on flights inside Kazakhstan, as well as to China, India, Russia and Ukraine.

Air Astana, which is 51 per cent controlled by the Kazakh government and BAE Systems (49 per cent), currently operates a mixed fleet of eight Airbus A320ceos, two A320neos, four A321ceos, three A321neos, four Boeing 757s, three B767s and 11 Embraer E190s, including three new-generation E2 variants, and is expecting the delivery of a further two E190-E2s. The airline also has three Boeing 787s on order, but has held back on their delivery dates due to “unfavourable market conditions.”

In early May, Air Astana launched a low-cost off-spring called FlyArystan, which has already proved successful in the first months of operations. It started out with just two Airbus A320s borrowed from its parent, but plans to bring its fleet up to 15 units by 2022.

In the first two full months of operations, FlyArystan transported 127,000 passengers, with more than 70,000 served in June.

Most of the passengers – some 40,000, representing 33 per cent of the total – were transported along the Almaty-Nur-Sultan route.