AIR Astana, the national flag carrier of Kazakhstan, announced plans to purchase four Boeing 767-300ER aircraft and three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, an order worth $1.3 billion at list prices and the largest ever in Kazakhstan’s civil aviation history.
The B767s will be delivered in 2013 and 2014 and the B787s in 2017 and 2019. The airline’s chairman, Nurzhan Baidauletov, managing director of its majority owner, sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, said that the introduction of the Dreamliner “will place Air Astana amongst the leading airlines of the world in terms of operating highest quality, environmentally friendly air services”.
Baidauletov added: “In keeping with its history of financial self-sufficiency, Air Astana would not require state or shareholder funds for the purchases but “will fund the new aircraft through a combination of its own cash and financial instruments through the air finance market.”
Air Astana president Peter Foster said the B767s, equipped with winglets, would replace its present two leased aircraft of the same type and progressively replace its leased Boeing 757s. Foster stated that the Boeing 767 has proved capable of operating efficiently on all of Air Astana’s present network without restriction. Foster also stated that the B787s, with its superior range, will enable the airline to operate routes to the US, Australasia and Africa as its business plans develop.
The airline also announced unaudited operating results for 2011. Net profit declined by 19 per cent to $61.9 million. Capacity grew by 15 per cent and the number of passengers carried grew by 16 per cent to just over three million. Revenues grew by 16 per cent to $760 million.
Foster says, “The decline in profitability was entirely due to fuel price rises of more than 130 per cent over 2010. Nonetheless, a net margin of 8.1 per cent is very respectable by industry standards and ahead of our ten year average. During the year the airline introduced its first three Embraer 190 regional jets and one additional Boeing 757, and begun flights to Samara in Russia and Tbilisi in Georgia. It increased frequencies on most of its other routes. “
Air Astana is a joint venture between Samruk Kazyna (51 per cent) and BAE Systems PLC (49 per cent). It will mark 10 years of operations in May 2012.