Air Astana was registered as a company in 2001. The first flight was operated from Almaty to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on May 15, 2002.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, and sir Richard Evans, representative of the British company BAE Systems PLC which was a shareholder of national air company, attended in an official opening ceremony of the company.

National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna owns company's 51 percent share and the other 49 percent was bought by Great Britain's the BAE Systems PLC. These two stakeholders still keep their assets because The owners of Air Astana are still keeping it from IPO.

Highest service of qualification

Kazakh National Company was certified by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in the requirements of the directive no. 145.

In May 2015 Air Astana successfully passed the fifth audit on operational safety in IATA Operational Safety Audit. After 5 months from that time, in October 2015, our major air company passed the certified audit of EASA for air companies of countries which are not the member of European Union (Third Country Operators (TCO) certification audit).

The Astana-based company is also qualified by EASA on systems of training of the technical personnel with  the requirements of EASA Part 147.

Increasing potential

Nowadays, Air Astana has 30 planes which were made by western requirement production. Airplanes average operational sustainability is 6,73 years. The route of air flight directions includes more than 60 internal and international flights.

High skilled personnel of the company provides about 4 300 workplaces. Most local citizens are involved in the company's employment staff.

Peter Foster, British who worked as a chairman in the aviation business with an experience more than 30 years, have become a CEO of Air Astana since fall 2015.

[caption id="attachment_36125" align="alignnone" width="900"] Air Astana’s Peter Foster and Air Lease’s Steven Udvar-Házy signed agreement to buy seven A320neo family jets[/caption]

Kazakh National Company made an order for the purchase of property planes like Boeing 787, Boeing 767, Airbus A320 and Embraer 190. This acquisition will allow to increase in the long-term number of aircraft till 36 units by the end of 2017 and to 43 units by 2020.

Photo: airastana.com