Page 16 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2014 Online Magazine

FEATURE AIR ASTANA

Regional Resurgence

According to Peter Foster, president of Air Astana, the role of the regional carrier is
about to change. Instead of the poor relation to the major international carriers, it
seems the time is ripe for expansion. Jeremy Torr reports.

“Just look at our geography, and you can “What we are looking at is a kind of
see that we are in a fantastic situation,” extended local, or extended regional
says Peter Foster, president of the customer market,” explains Foster.
Kazakhstan national carrier, Air Astana. “We have the slots, the aircraft and
A look at the map confirms this. With its the infrastructure to service many of
two key hubs, Astana and Almaty, situated the second-tier cities in China, all with
halfway between China and Eastern millions of people living there. We already
Europe, a few hours flying from the Middle fly into most of the major Russian cities,
Eastern hubs and even closer to the to Delhi, to Abu Dhabi, to London and to
BRICS of India and Russia, Air Astana is Turkey – even Amsterdam and Bangkok.”
sitting pretty. And with a booming oil and gas economy

16 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2014 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM