Air Astana was incorporated in late 2001 and operated its maiden flight on 15 May 2002, a Boeing 737 service from Almaty to Kazakhstans national capital, Astana. The inaugural was attended by President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Sir Richard Evans, representing the two shareholders, the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and BAE Systems PLC of the UK. The shareholders have remained partners throughout the airlines history, with the governments 51% held by Samruk-Kazyna JSC and with BAE Systems retaining 49%. The airlines mission has also remained constant, to provide quality domestic and international air services to the highest standards of safety and service using modern generation aircraft in order to serve and compliment the needs of Kazakhstan, one of the worlds fastest growing economies.

Air Astana is the only airline in Kazakhstan to maintain its fleet to audited EU EASA 145 standards. In 2008 Air Astana was admitted to the register of the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), one of a small number of airlines in the Commonwealth of Independent States to have achieved this. The Air Astana fleet consists of Boeing 767s, Boeing 757s, Airbus A320s, Airbus A321 and Fokker-50 aircraft. Air Astana currently operates a total of 21 aircraft and has plans to increase its fleet size to a total of 34 aircraft by 2014. The Boeing 767-300ER is a wide-body extended range aircraft. It has two GE CF6-80C2 engines each producing over 27 tonnes of thrust. The cabin is configured with 30 business class seats with individual in-flight entertainment units (LCD screens), and 190 economy seats.

For more information, please visit http://www.airastana.com