Air Astana today announced that it would launch a third route from Kazakhstan to Frankfurt. The Kazakh airline last month announced that it would resume its other route to Frankfurt to Nur Sultan as it looks to recover operations following the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of late, Kazakh air carrier Air Astana has been making giant leaps forwards. In the past years, the airline has taken delivery of new Airbus A321LR neo aircraft, in addition to launching a new low-cost subsidiary, FlyArystan. Despite the recent pitfalls that have hit aviation, Air Astana is continuing to push forward.
New route to Frankfurt
Just last month, Air Astana revealed that it would be relaunching its Frankfurt route from Nur Sultan. Now, the airline is planning to add a flight to the German capital of aviation from next month. On October 2nd, the airline will begin flying twice a week from Almaty. This will increase to thrice-weekly flights from October 26th.
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Air Astana will use its fleet of new A321LR aircraft for the new Frankfurt route. This is the aircraft that the airline uses from Nur Sultan. The plane has 166 seats across two classes. 16 lie-flat beds occupy the business class section, accompanied by 150 economy seats.
Commenting on the route launch, Air Astana Vice-President Richard Ledger said,
“I’m delighted to announce the boost to services between Kazakhstan and Germany, which deliver maximum connectivity with partner airlines across Europe and North America,”
Eight weekly flights to Frankfurt
The Kazakh carrier has timed its flight to allow passengers to transfer onto codeshare partner Lufthansa. As such, it will operate with the following schedule:
- Flight KC 221 will depart from Almaty International Airport (ALA) at 03:50. Following a 7-hour 10-minute night flight, it will touch down at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) at 07:00.
- The Airbus A321LR will then spend 4-hours and 20-minutes on the ground in Frankfurt.
- Flight KC 222 will depart from Frankfurt Airport at 11:20. After a shorter 6-hour 25-minute flight, the aircraft will arrive back in Almaty at 21:45.
Alongside the Nur Sultan route, and a route to Uralsk, Air Astana will operate eight weekly rotations to Frankfurt when operations are at full speed. This includes four weekly cycles from Nur Sultan and one from Uralsk.
Other recent achievements
Simple Flying previously labeled Air Astana as one to watch during 2020 due to its success in 2019. While the current pandemic may have been a road bump, the airline is still making impressive progress.
Last year we saw Air Astana buck the trend and order 30 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for its low-cost subsidiary, FlyArystan, at the last Dubai Air Show. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the carrier announced that it would be launching a cargo division with its Boeing 767 aircraft.
What do you make of Air Astana’s focus on Frankfurt? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!