Air Astana plans to double China flights again, CEO says
Air Astana has more than doubled weekly flights to China since the Middle East crisis began and plans to double them again within one to two years, the Kazakh airline's CEO said, turning an emergency redeployment into a permanent shift toward Asia.
Air Astana has more than doubled flights to China since the Middle East crisis began and plans to double them again within one to two years, the Kazakh airline's chief executive said, turning an emergency redeployment into a permanent shift toward Asia.
CEO Ibrahim Canliel said the airline's weekly frequencies to China had grown from 23 last summer to 52 and expanded from four cities at the start of 2025 to eight. "Any city that has an international airport in China, we should fly to, because a small city is as big as the biggest city of our country, and a medium city is equal to the population of the country," he told Reuters on Wednesday ahead of an industry event in Kuala Lumpur.
The pivot followed the closure of large parts of Middle Eastern airspace after the Iran conflict began in late February. Canliel said about 15 per cent of Air Astana's capacity had been allocated to the Middle East at the time. The carrier redeployed that capacity within 48 hours for the following month's schedule and within five days for the full summer season, shifting aircraft to China, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia.
"What we thought was a kind of a recovery from a crisis scenario actually has highlighted to us the type of opportunity or magnitude of the opportunity that we actually have," Canliel said. He said connecting traffic rose 81 per cent in the first half, while transit passengers now account for about 14 per cent of international traffic, up from about 9 per cent last year. Canliel said he expected connecting traffic to reach roughly half of international passengers within 10 years.
Air Astana resumed Dubai flights in early October and has started flying to Oman, but Saudi Arabia flights remain suspended, pending twice-daily security assessments. "We will only go in when we feel that it is safe to fly," he said. Canliel said the expansion into Asia would not be reversed even if Gulf airspace fully normalises, citing strong margins on the China routes. In India, where capacity grew more than 80 per cent, he said he could "comfortably double" it within 12 months if traffic rights allow.
Air Astana's current orders will not cover both fleet renewal and growth beyond 2030, when it aims to have 86 aircraft against 65 now, Canliel said. He said the airline has not yet started talks with manufacturers on new narrowbodies. Orders announced last year cover up to 50 Airbus A320neo-family jets and up to 15 Boeing 787-9s, but only 25 and 5 respectively are firm.