Kazakhstan’s Air Astana group has reported a
profit after tax for 2022 of US$78.4 million, on revenues of
US$1.03 billion, generated by 7.35 million passengers.
The figures
are 115%, 36% and 11%, respectively, higher than 2021, the highest
in the airline’s 20 year history on all three metrics.
“The group significantly exceeded expectations
despite political unrest in Kazakhstan in January and the Russian
invasion of Ukraine in February,” said Peter Foster, President and
CEO of Air Astana Group. “Revenue loss caused by the
closure of routes to, from and over Russia was more than
compensated for by increased capacity deployment to Europe, Asia,
India and the Caucasus.”
Commenting on the performance of FlyArystan, the
group’s 4-year old low cost carrier, Foster said,
“FlyArystan has grown by 366% since its inaugural year of 2019. It
has a great future, as this region probably has the fastest
growing low cost air travel market in the world today.”
Looking forward, Foster pointed out that whilst
2023 is expected to continue to deliver robust passenger growth,
“headwinds persist in the form of continued airport and service
provider resource and supply chain limitations, technical
reliability issues with PW1100G engines, and general inflationary
pressure on all aviation-related resources.”
Air Astana commenced operations in May 2002 as
a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund, Samruk
Kazyna, and BAE Systems, with respective shares of 51% and 49%.
The group now operates a combined fleet of 43 aircraft, comprising
35 Airbus A320/A321 family aircraft, three Boeing 767 and five
Embraer E2.
