Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, reported an operating profit of $97.7 million in 2014, an increase of 35 per cent over 2013 and the highest in the company’s history.
Passenger traffic rose by 3 per cent to 3.8 million, while revenue was $932.9 million. Air Astana marks the 13th anniversary of its first flight from Almaty to Astana this year.
“Another remarkably successful year has passed for Air Astana, with continued profitable growth and new service innovations adding to the established reputation for consistently safe, reliable, convenient and high quality air service,” said Peter Foster, president of Air Astana. “Winning the ATW Airline Market Leader of the Year was a proud moment for every one of our 4,000 staff and serves to confirm Air Astana’s proud status as Central Asia’s leading carrier.”
Additionally, the airline also became the first from Central Asia to join the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines in June last year. The past year has seen new international services launched from Astana to Paris and Bangkok, extra frequencies from Astana to London and the relaunch of services between Almaty and Dubai. Further new services will be launched from Astana to Seoul and Tbilisi on June 2. Air Astana currently operates a fleet of 30 Airbus, Boeing and Embraer airliners on a network of 64 routes between 39 international and domestic destinations.
The airline launched an innovative Economy Sleeper Class product on Boeing 757 services from Astana to London, Frankfurt and Paris, as well as from Almaty to Hong Kong, earlier this year. Economy Sleeper Class provides more comfort and allows passengers to rest and sleep in a lie flat position, by combining three economy seats. The Economy Sleeper Class cabin is completely separate from Business and Economy Class cabins, with up to 12 seats available on each flight. Separately, the airline launched a range of new in-flight menus on all international and regional services in April 2015.
Air Astana became the first carrier from Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe to be awarded the prestigious Four-Star rating by Skytrax in its World Airline Awards 2012 and was named The Best Airline in Central Asia and India. Both accolades were repeated in 2013 and again last year.