Page 30 - AAA MAY / JULY 2024 Digital Magazine | GBP

GUEST ARTICLE
The Story of Air Astana
is Stranger Than Fiction
- Richard Trevithick
n its Wikipedia page, Air
Astana used to be thus
O described: “Though one
of the most successful start-up
airlines of recent times, its exis- napkin (Air Astana’s equivalent
tence represents possibly the
most unusual and unlikely story
of the industry”.
Doubtless sanitized by
over-zealous PR people in
light of its recent listing on the
London Stock Exchange, the
now airbrushed description is in
fact spot on.
How did mammoth UK defence
contractor BAE Systems come
to be a founding shareholder
of an airline in Kazakhstan, a
country virtually unknown in
aviation circles in 2002? Is there
any truth to the legend that the
deal was inked on a hotel table
napkin in the dead of night a
year earlier by then-President
Nazarbayev and then-BAE
Systems Chairman Sir Richard
(Dick) Evans?
30 | MAY - JULY 2024
Truth can be stranger than fic-
tion, and Evans swears to this
day that it did indeed happen as
the legend asserts. Sadly, the
of the Holy Grail) seems to have
been lost, or perhaps buried at
the bottom of one of the boxes
of old files in the former BAE
chief’s Lytham St Annes family
home.
Peter Foster, CEO, Air Astana Group is the driving force of aviation
©Airbus
What is indisputable is that
Air Astana was founded with
just US$17m of shareholders’
money, its first and last tranche
of invested capital (including
during Covid, which it survived
without a cent of external
finance).
The airline publicly listed earlier
this year on the Astana, Almaty
and London Stock Exchanges
for a market capitalization at
listing of US$847m, having
paid aggregate dividends over
the years of approximately
US$140m. By any measure that
is some return in an industry
known for thin margins and high
volatility.
To summarize, Air Astana has
produced stellar returns for its
shareholders, built from scratch
the largest and most admired
airline in Eurasia, delivered a
world class airline brand for its
host country Kazakhstan, and
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