KAZAKHSTAN: Almaty And Astana Are Leading Airports, Air Astana Is Dominant Airline

Kazakhstan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

According to the United Nations DESA / Population Division, the country’s population increased by about 14% from 2008 to 2017, rising from 16.0 million to 18.2 million.

The capacity available on domestic and international flights serving the nation has been keeping pace.

There were nearly 6.50 million seats available on all domestic and international flights serving Kazakhstan in 2008.

Like many markets around the world, Kazakhstan saw a cut in available seats in 2009 as the global recession took hold, but since then, the CIS member has enjoyed a strong return to form and a significant expansion of capacity on commercial air services.

By 2011, capacity had recovered to, and exceeded, the levels set in 2008. Seat numbers have increased from 6.32 million in 2010 to 12.83 million in 2017, meaning the market has doubled in size in less than a decade.

The average capacity on flights serving Kazakhstan decreased slightly from 128 in 2008, to 126 in 2017.

On domestic links, the average capacity dropped from 112 to 109 seats from 2008 to 2017, but international services experienced an increase from 144 to 147 seats-per-flight over the same period.

International flights still account for more than half of all seats in the Kazakhstan market, despite domestic services enjoying stronger year-on-year percentage growth across all but one of the past six years.

International services accounted for 53% of all two-way seats in 2017, down from 55% in 2008.

From 2008 to 2017, domestic seat numbers have more than doubled from 2.91 to 6.09 million, while international capacity increased by 88% from 3.58 to 6.74 million seats.

Kazakhstan’s flag carrier Air Astana dominates air services in its home country, accounting for 49% of all available seats in 2017.

Almaty-based operator currently has a fleet of 31 aircraft including E190s, A319s, A320s, A321s, 757s and 767-300s.

It was the leading provider of both domestic and international seats in its home market last year.

Air Astana accounted for 52% of domestic capacity and 46% of available international seats in 2017.

In total, four of the top 12 carriers from 2017 were Kazakhstan-based operators, while another three were from Russia, with two from Turkey and one each from Germany, Ukraine and the UAE.

Bek Air deployed the largest increase in seats amongst the top 12 airlines in this market in 2017.

The Kazakhstani carrier operates a fleet of seven Fokker 100s, more than trebled its capacity from 2016 to 2017, offering more than 1.00 million seats, mainly on domestic services.

Bek Air increased capacity on existing links but also added new nodes to its network, including a connection between Almaty and Shymkent.

Other carriers to see strong growth included Atlasglobal and flydubai which increased their available seats to and from Kazakhstan by 82% and 62% respectively.

Two carriers experienced cuts on Kazakhstan services, with Ukraine International Airlines witnessing the largest reduction of 15%.

Lufthansa is operating between Almaty and Astana, but these are triangular services connecting Kazakhstan’s largest airports with Frankfurt, and the German carrier does not sell seats on these domestic flights.

Even if this capacity is removed from Lufthansa’s total, it would still be the tenth largest seat provider serving Kazakhstan.

A notable new entrant to the Kazakhstan market in 2017 was Wizz Air, which launched services from Budapest to Astana.

Almaty and Astana are the largest departure points in Kazakhstan, having accounted for more than two-thirds of all departing seats from the country’s airport’s last year, with the former topping the table.

Air Astana operates a significant network of domestic and international routes from both facilities, although Almaty remains its largest base.

All of the top 12 airports in Kazakhstan experienced an increase in departing seats from 2016 to 2017 with the strongest growth coming at Uralsk, Kyzylorda and Shymkent, which witnessed respective increases of 66%, 34% and 31%.

Uralsk benefited from capacity increases on existing services by SCAT Airlines, Bek Air and Qazaq Air.

Given their prominence as the leading airports in Kazakhstan, it is not surprising that the top domestic route links Astana to Almaty.

One-way capacity from the capital city to the country’s largest airport increased by more than 13% from 2016 to 2017, exceeding 930,000 seats last year.

In all, nine of the ten largest domestic airport pairs serve either Astana or Almaty.

The one exception is the link between Aktau and Atyrau, which supported just under 100,000 seats in each direction in 2017, making it the seventh largest domestic service.

Russia was the leading international market from Kazakhstan in 2017, accounting for nearly one-third of all departing seats on international services.

The top two international routes in 2017 were the links between Moscow Sheremetyevo and Almaty and Astana.

Both airport pairs experienced a healthy 5.0% increase in seats from 2016 to 2017.

The countries making up the top 12 international markets from Kazakhstan remained the same from 2016 to 2017, but there were some ranking changes.

China experienced the strongest growth in departing international seats during this period and overtook the UAE to become the third largest market.

The 22% increase in seats to China was a result of capacity increases on existing services by Air Astana and China Southern Airlines, plus the introduction of Air China’s link to Beijing, which launched in June 2017.

Turkey maintained its position as the second largest international market from Kazakhstan following a 20% increase in seats.

31 new links were launched across all airports in Kazakhstan during 2017, 10 of which were domestic. SCAT Airlines launched the most of these services, commencing operations on 13.

The Kazakhstani carrier has already announced an additional new route for 2018, with plans to commence operations between Astana and Vilnius from 27 May.

The only other new Kazakhstan air services announced for 2018 so far are links from Novosibirsk to Pavlodar with S7 Airlines and from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Kyzylorda with Aeroflot.


Tourism Observer

KAZAKHSTAN: Air Astana Slips Off Runway At Astana International Airport

An Air Astana Airbus A320-200 skidded off the runway during a windy approach at Astana International Airport.

The incident was captured by a passenger who was filming the heavy crosswind approach, as well as by an observer who was standing in front of the runway.

Air Astana’s flight KC352 departed Shymkent with 97 passengers and nine crew members.

As seen by the observer’s video, the plane approached Runway 22 with a dramatic crosswind angle.

Upon touching down, the aircraft abandoned the runway, crossing taxiways B and C, before returning to the runway’s centerline.

As seen in the video, the experience included heavy vibrations and terrified passengers.

Eyewitnesses say there were no injuries reported.

The plane suffered damage to the number-one (left) engine inlet.

The Airbus A320-200 was delivered to the airline in 2013 and is part of a fleet of other eight A320ceos and one A320neo.

Air Astana boasts a fleet of 31 planes, including Airbus A321, Boeing 757, 767, and Embraer E190.

The overall age of the airline’s fleet is averaging at 8.6 years.

Local reports confirm that thunderstorms with associated winds reached 49 knots of gusts.

In the city, a building crane collapsed.

Following the incident, the plane was towed to the apron and all passengers disembarked.

Astana Airport was closed for 40 minutes following the incident.


Tourism Observer

KAZAKHSTAN: SCAT Airlines Switching Destination Airport From Domodedovo To Vnukovo

Kazakhstan’s SCAT Airlines is in the process of switching the destination airport for its three Moscow services from Domodedovo to Vnukovo. The carrier performed its first flight into Vnukovo from Aktobe on September 6. By October 29, it will have similarly changed the Moscow destination for its other two routes, from Shymkent and Aktau.

This is our 20th year in operation, and we are currently working to develop our route network, SCAT Vice-President Marketing Alexandra Sytnik said. At the current stage, we find that Vnukovo offers convenient maintenance options, an appealing price policy, and a chance of concluding agreements with other airlines.

We have also received multiple requests from passengers to transfer to Vnukovo, which is located closer to the city and offers connection flights that are interesting to them.

Sytnik added that moving to Vnukovo should help the carrier keep its current prices despite the weaking Kazakhstani currency.

SCAT is the first Kazakh airline to launch flights to Vnukovo. The Russian capital city is a key destination for the airline, which expects traffic on its Moscow routes to grow further. In the first seven months of 2017 the figure stood at 33,800 passengers. up 16.5% year-on-year.

The carrier also plans to develop its route network through interline, code-sharing, and special prorate agreements.

We believe that Vnukovo will help us with this, Sytnik announced at the inauguration news conference for the Aktobe-Moscow route.

We will thus offer a great network of connection flights to Kazakh citizens, whereas Russian citizens will avail of our domestic route network, which is the most extensive in Kazakhstan.

This will give travelers the possibility to reach the farther corners of our country.

Sytnik said that SCAT is currently negotiating a possible interline and special prorate agreement, complete with full baggage transfer, with Russia’s UTair Aviation.

The latter uses Vnukovo as one of its bases, and performs about 160 flights per day from there.

SCAT Airlines currently operates 45 domestic and 22 international routes.

Its international destinations are in CIS countries and Georgia, as well as in China and Turkey.

The airline offers routes to several Russian cities other than Moscow, including Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Sochi, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, and Kazan.

At present, SCAT is not allowed to operate flights between Moscow and Kazakhstan’s two largest cities, Astana and Almaty: the current intergovernmental agreements permits the two countries to designate only one operator each for these routes.

For the same reasons, Sytnik said the carrier cannot fly from Astana to Zhukovsky, another airport serving Moscow.

The airline believes that Zhukovsky offers great potential for cargo transportation.

The carrier is considering launching flights to Russia’s Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and St. Petersburg, and might relaunch operations to Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Tomsk.


Tourism Observer

UAE: Flydubai And Air Astana To Fly, Dubai And Astana

The low cost airline flydubai and the national airline Air Astana from Kazakhstan both open a new route between Dubai and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

As of October 26, 2015, flydubai will link four times a week Dubai and Astana, a road where she will meet competition from Air Astana, too newcomer. Flydubai flight, operated by Boeing 737-800, leave every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 21:00 and arrive in Dubai 3:24 (4:25 flight), the return flight starting again on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 4:25 and arrived at 7:20.

In a similar move, Air Astana also inaugurate on October 26 its route between Dubai and Astana, it will operate Airbus A320 configured for 148 passengers with 16 in Business Class, every Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday departing at 15.05 Astana (arriving in Dubai at 18:00), the return flight from Dubai to 19h starting again for a landing in Kazakhstan at 1:30 am the next day. Recall that these two companies also compete on the axis between Almaty and Dubai.

Flydubai has launched operations to Kazakhstan in September 2014, with flights to Almaty and Shymkent. Astana becomes the ninth destination in its network in the region of Central Asia Caucasus where it accounts for 38 weekly flights from Dubai (to cities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.) It operates a fleet 50 B737-800 -and notably ordered 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 - serving 95 destinations across 46 countries.

For its part, Air Astana has a fleet of 30 aircraft (13 aircraft of the A320 family, 5 B757-200, B767-300ER 3 and 9 Embraer 190), serving 65 destinations including Paris-CDG. It also has on order 7 A320 neo Family and 3 787-8 Dreamliner.