Kazakh low-cost carrier Fly Arystan is expecting to take delivery of its seventh aircraft later this month. It comes as the airline celebrates 92% on-time performance on over 48 daily flights.
According to the latest stats released by Boeing as part of its 2020 commercial outlook, it seems as though domestic travel is recovering faster than its international counterpart. According to the manufacturer, in August, domestic markets had recovered to 49% of their 2019 figure. Meanwhile, for international flights, this stood at only 12%. Fly Arystan’s domestic route portfolio seems to be doing exceedingly well according to its parent airline’s CEO, Peter Foster.
One and a half years in service
Considering it was only launched one and a half years ago and has dealt with a global pandemic in that time, Fly Arystan is doing very well for its self. The airline was launched as a low-cost subsidiary of Kazakh carrier Air Astana back in May 2019.
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The airline today revealed that 92% of its flights in September were on time. However, it seems as though this isn’t a fluke for the most recent month. Since the start of the year, the airline had flown more than 6,300 flights. Of these, a total of 91% have been on time or early arriving at their destination.
While many airlines remain somewhat crippled by the current pandemic, this is not the case for Air Astana and FlyArystan as far as domestic flights go. Indeed, due to its increasing fleet size, the airline is now carrying more passengers than it did this time last year. This could partially be as caused by people opting to fly instead of taking the train. Kazakhstan has a robust long-distance train network.
Seventh A320 inbound
Currently, Fly Arystan has six Airbus A320s, compared to the two it had in September last year. The airline aims to have at least 15 aircraft by 2022, and it is making good progress. Indeed, the seventh A320 for the fleet is expected to be delivered by the end of the month. All of the airlines A320s previously flew for parent airline Air Astana.
However, at the last Dubai Airshow, Air Astana placed a letter of intent for 30 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The letter of intent has a list price value of $3.6 billion. When talking of the LOI last month, Air Astana CEO Peter Foster told Simple Flying,
“The process that that aircraft will have gone through for recertification will have been the most rigorous process, one would imagine, that any civil aircraft has ever gone through ever in the history of the industry. So I’ve no doubt whatsoever that when it starts flying again it will be an ultra-safe aircraft.”
What do you make of FlyArystan’s first year and a half? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
