Dear Air Astana flyer,

I recently tried to explain to my youngest son, who was complaining that Christmas seems so distant, that whilst Newton defined time as a universal and mathematical absolute, he also understood the concept of relative time. Therefore whilst one year, to a nine-year-old, represents one ninth of his existence, and therefore an eternity, one sixty second (in my case) passes by all too quickly. As the poet Andrew Marvell wrote, “Time’s wingèd chariot [is] hurrying near”. All this to say that here we are again at the start of summer. Hopefully the year is going well and you are already planning your summer vacation. As ever, the Turkish Riviera towns of Antalya and Bodrum will be popular with families, as will Montenegro, a mainland European destination which does not require entry visas for Kazakh passport holders. This issue’s cover features beautiful and historic Crete, Europe’s third largest island, now in its second year as an Air Astana destination.

For those of you who would prefer to avoid the busy Mediterranean and Aegean coastlines, the counter-intuitive option is Asia, whether that is Bangkok, the islands, the elegant Thai royal retreat of Hua Hin, or indeed closer to home, in Georgia, Armenia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan itself. This year, both Air Astana and Flyarystan continue to take delivery of new aircraft and expand their networks, in the expectation of offering you the widest possible choice of family memories-to-be.

I wish you a pleasant flight with Air Astana today.