Dear Air Astana flyer,
By now we had hoped to be offering a much-expanded international flight schedule, however sadly that has not happened. Many countries are experiencing a second wave of COVID-19, which although at time of writing appears not to be the case in Kazakhstan, governments here and abroad are adopting a cautious approach with regard to cross-border travel, tourism and leisure activities. Therefore Air Astana’s scheduled international network is likely to be limited for the remainder of the year to a restricted number of flights to Dubai, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Antalya, Seoul, Moscow, Tashkent, Kiev and Bishkek. We intend to supplement these with charter flights to Sharm El Sheikh on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, and the Maldives.
We appreciate and understand the governments’ reasoning and their efforts to suppress the spread of the virus. At the same time, travel, tourism and leisure industries are collectively a massive generator of global economic activity and jobs. It is vital that these industries are able to restart in a meaningful way at a point early in 2021, failing which the financial and social consequences will be extreme to both national economies and peoples’ lives. We firmly believe, in line with IATA and the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), of which we are full members, that pre-departure COVID-19 testing for passengers intending to take international flights holds the key to a restart. We recognise that present biotechnology necessitates a time lag between test result and travel, and that therefore a negative test is not a 100% infection-free guarantee, however very few human activities are entirely risk-free and there needs to be a balance between risk avoidance and economic hardship. At the time of writing, the Kazakhstan sanitary authorities have imposed a requirement upon people entering the country to be tested at most 72 hours before arrival, a measure which seems to be working effectively. Similarly, all evidence to date indicates virtually no viral transmission onboard aircraft.
I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a healthy and enjoyable end to the year, and with the hope that for all of us, 2021 will bring better times.
Yours truly,