Air Astana Increases Passenger Numbers by 79% in 2021

ALMATY, Kazakhstan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Air Astana (the �Company” and together with its subsidiaries – “the Air Astana Group”), the leading airline in Central Asia, provides its operational update for the year ended 31 December 2021:

• The Air Astana Group carried 6.617 million passengers, an increase of 79% year-on-year:
  • Air Astana carried 3.555 million passengers, an increase of 59%;
  • FlyArystan, the Group’s low-cost subsidiary, carried 3.062 million passengers, an increase of 109%.
• The Air Astana Group carried 12,072 tons of cargo on scheduled flights and 6,700 tons on charter flights, which were respectively 30% and 45% above 2020 figures.
• Air Astana opened new international flights to Batumi (Georgia), Podgorica (Montenegro), Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Phuket (Thailand), as well as resuming services to several destinations such as Male, London, Delhi, Tbilisi (Georgia) and Dushanbe (Tajikistan).
• During the year, FlyArystan inaugurated services to Kutaisi (Georgia) from three cities in Kazakhstan and launched 10 new domestic routes.
• The Company added three Airbus A321LR and one Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet.
• Air Astana also successfully completed IOSA’s eighth safety audit and conducted C-Check on an Airbus A321 for the first time at its technical base in Nur-Sultan.

Commenting on the results, Peter Foster, President and CEO stated:

“These figures represent a strong recovery from the Covid 19-affected 2020. Total carriage of more than 6.6 million customers is the highest ever recorded in the history of the airline. In large part this was driven by the strong performance of FlyArystan, which in only its second full year of operation carried almost as many customers as Air Astana, driven by low fares, mainly on routes within Kazakhstan, as a result of its ultra-competitive cost structure. FlyArystan is therefore on track to fulfill its core mission of increasing mobility by air across the country for Kazakhstan’s citizens”.

For further information, please visit www.airastana.com

About Air Astana

Air Astana is the leading airline in Central Asia and the flag carrier of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, it operates scheduled, domestic and international services on 84 routes from its hubs in Almaty and Nur-Sultan.

Air Astana offers passengers full-service travel and award-winning levels of comfort and punctuality from a low-cost structure. The airline operates a fleet of 36 modern and fuel-efficient aircraft and is well positioned to capitalise on the growth potential of the region.

In 2019, the airline launched a low-cost carrier, FlyArystan, the first Central Asian low-cost carrier, to stimulate demand for low cost travel in a largely untapped domestic and regional market.

Air Astana is led by a best-in-class management team with international track records. It has been recognised by Skytrax as the best airline in Central Asia for nine years running and was awarded a 5-star airline rating at the 2021 APEX Awards.

Contacts

Air Astana
Bella Tormysheva

Vice-President

Corporate Communications

+7 727 258 41 35

media@airastana.com

Instinctif Partners
Mark Walter

Galyna Kulachek

Joe Quinlan

+44 20 7457 2020

airastana@instinctif.com