Summary
- Air Astana sees strong start in 2024, with Q1 revenue up by 13.3% and a new route to Seoul announced for June.
- Group boosts capacity and earnings, with $50 million EBITDAR in Q1, highlighting robust performance despite challenges.
- Compensation agreement with Pratt & Whitney and fleet expansion with Airbus A320neo deliveries assisting growth for Air Astana Group.
Air Astana has had a great start to 2024, with strong first-quarter financial results, a compensation agreement with engine maker Pratt & Whitney and the announcement that the Astana to Seoul route will be resumed in June. The airline group boosted revenue by 13.3% year-on-year by carrying 1.9 million passengers, up from 1.6 million in the first three months of 2023.
Returning to Seoul from Astana
Air Astana commenced flying between Astana and South Korea’s Seoul Incheon International (ICN) in 2015, and the route was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, the full-service carrier announced it would resume the route on June 15, 2024, with a twice-weekly frequency using the new generation and longer-range Airbus A321LR narrowbody.
Photo: Air Astana
Resuming this route will complement the daily flights between Almaty and Seoul Incheon, which were launched in 2003. Since then, more than 800,000 passengers have traveled on the route. Yesterday, Air Astana flight KC909 departed Almaty International (ALA) at 00:19 and, after a 5:23-hour flight, landed at Seoul Incheon at 09:42.
The flight was operated with a 2017 Boeing 767-300ER, registration EI-KEC and MSN 42223, one of three 767s in Air Astana’s fleet of 29 aircraft. The return flight departed Seoul at 11:26 and was back in Almaty at 13:45. According to Planespotters.net, the Air Astana fleet includes five Airbus A320neos, two A321-200s, 16 A321neos, three Boeing 767-300s and three Embraer E190-E2 regional jets.
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Air Astana is also increasing flight frequencies for its 2024 Summer Schedule from Almaty, including from Almaty to Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent up to 14 times weekly; to Kyrgystan’s capital, Bishkek up to eight times weekly and Tbilisi, up to nine times a week; to Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe up to four times a week and Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku up to three times a week.
The numbers look good in Q1
In the three months ended March 31, 2024 (1Q24), the Air Astana Group, which includes LCC FlyArystan, earned revenue of $264.7 million, a 13.3% year-on-year (YoY) gain from the $233.7 million in 1Q23. It carried 1.9 million passengers at a load factor of 81.2% and increased capacity, as measured by available seat kilometers (ASKs) by 15.2% YOY and demand as measured by revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) by 13.5%, knocking 1.2 percentage points off the load factor.
Photo: FlyArystan
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and rent (EBITDAR), excluding non-recurring items, increased by 6.9% YoY to $50 million, compared to $46.7 million last year. The group finished the quarter with cash and bank balances of $369.5 million and net debt of $350.9 million, compared to $276.1 million and $485.9 million, respectively, in 1Q23.
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Air Astana Group CEO Peter Foster said the robust performance came despite the traditionally weaker first-quarter demand and the impact of the quieter Ramadan period, which fell almost entirely into the first quarter this year, adding:
“Passenger demand remains strong across both Air Astana and FlyArystan, underpinned by increasing levels of travel within Kazakhstan, across Central Asia and to our nearby mega markets of China and India. With international bookings for summer ahead of last year we are ramping up capacity by expanding the fleet and optimising resources.”
In March, the group reached an agreement with Pratt & Whitney to compensate for the disruptions stemming from the GTF neo engine availability issues. The agreement will help address costs and supplement the existing range of robust operational initiatives, including purchasing a sixth spare PW1100 GTF engine, which, combined with two other leased engines, is part of the mitigation plan.
By the end of 1Q, the group’s fleet had reached 50 aircraft following the delivery of one Airbus A321neo to Air Astana in January, which was followed by the arrival of an Airbus A320neo to FlyArystan in April. FlyArystan also executed a lease agreement for another two A320ceo jets, in addition to an earlier fleet plan, with deliveries expected in the first quarter of 2025.
Have you flown with Air Astana or FlyArystan recently? Let us know in the comments.
