Tengri

Dear Air Astana flyer,

- Peter Foster President & CEO Air Astana

On May 15th 2002, the newly-establishe­d Air Astana operated its first commercial flight. As we enter our 20th year, the coronaviru­s pandemic with which we have all been living these past 15 months continues to challenge the travel and tourism industry. However, the Air Astana group is optimistic of better times ahead, for several reasons. Firstly, a positive move by the Government of Kazakhstan has been the introducti­on of a strict ‘No Test No Fly’ rule, whereby all passengers without exception are obliged to possess a current negative PCR test for COVID-19 as a condition for taking an internatio­nal flight into and out of the country. We fully support this enhanced health protection measure for the benefit of both passengers and crews. Secondly, we continue to introduce additional leisure routes to the Red Sea (including Hurghada, featured in this month’s tengri), Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, and Abu Dhabi which, as many of you will be aware, has in recent years developed a number of high quality resorts on its Arabian Gulf coast. We term these ‘lifestyle routes’, as many people now travel out of traditiona­l holiday seasons, given the greater ease with which one can run a business and educate children online from a distance. Thirdly, lifestyle routes require a high quality lifestyle airline, and

I am therefore delighted to announce that we have recently taken delivery of our 5th and 6th Airbus A321neo Long Range aircraft. The ‘LR’, as many of you will have already experience­d, offers the very best in terms of comfort, ambience and service, and has become the mainstay of our internatio­nal route network. For customers wishing to travel abroad on a tighter budget, Flyarystan has recently begun operating flights to

Kutaisi in Georgia from Nur-sultan, Aktau and Atyrau, and to Tashkent and Bishkek from our growing hub of Turkistan.

With a restricted network of internatio­nal flights, many local travellers continue to explore and enjoy the varied and often breathtaki­ng tourist sites across our own country. I am pleased to say that both Air Astana and Flyarystan are offering a vastly expanded network of domestic flights to suit all tastes and budgets across Kazakhstan.

I wish you a pleasant flight with

Air Astana today.

Yours truly,

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