Russian airspace closure fails to knock Air Astana finances

The closure of Russian airspace following the invasion of Ukraine failed to dampen the 2022 financial performance of Kazakhstan’s Air Astana group.

Chief executive Peter Foster said: “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.”

While 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 PW100 [turboprop] engines, and general inflationary pressure on all aviation-related resources.”

The group, including Air Astana which flies five times a week from Heathrow to Almaty, achieved a 115% rise in annual post-tax profits to $78.4 million as revenues rose by 36% to more than $1 billion based on an 11% rise in passenger carryings to 7.35 million.

All were the highest in the group’s 20-year history.

Foster added: “The group significantly exceeded expectations despite political unrest in Kazakhstan in January and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.”

The group now operates a fleet of 43 aircraft, comprising 35 Airbus A320/A321s, three Boeing 767s and five Embraer E2.

Low cost off-shoot 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,” Foster said.