The Kazakh Air Astana posted a loss of 94 million US dollars last year, making it only in the red for the second time in the company's history. The carrier is now seeing the first signs of a recovery in the industry.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the results from 2020 were heavily influenced by the complete or partial suspension of flight operations, which led to a capacity drop of 47 percent and a drop in sales of 55 percent. The total number of passengers carried fell by 28 percent to 3,7 million travelers.

“No question about it, the effects of the pandemic on international travel are devastating. However, Air Astana is resilient. Inner-Kazakh air traffic has recovered strongly since May 2020, and our low-cost carrier FlyArystan even recorded a passenger growth of 2020 percent in 110. It was also a good year for Cargo: Here we converted a Boeing 767 into a pure cargo plane. The partially resumed international route network as well as new tourist connections have led to better yields and more satisfactory occupancy rates in the last few weeks of 2020. This trend will continue in 2021, which is why we are looking to the future with a certain degree of confidence ”, says Air Astana boss Peter Foster.

Airline relies on A321LR

According to the carrier, the financial result, which was achieved in January and February 2021, should be at its highest level since 2017. This is seen as the first sign of a possible recovery in the entire industry. However, the company did not communicate details of the number of passengers carried in the two months.

In recent months, Air Astana has resumed connections to Frankfurt, Moscow, Dubai, Tashkent, Seoul, Bishkek, Kiev, Istanbul, Antalya and Sharm El Sheikh. There were also flights to the Maldives, Mattala / Sri Lanka and Hurghada / Egypt. In 2020, the airline retired its fleet of Boeing 757s and Embraer 190s and is now exclusively using Airbus A321LR (Long Range) and Boeing 767s of the latest generation on its most important international routes. According to Peter Foster, this will lead to a “significant product upgrade in the entire route network, combined with a high level of service improvements, which we believe will pay off as soon as the markets slowly recover”.