Keeping an eye on Kazakhstan's emerging low cost airline industry

Going through some press releases from the last few weeks I stumbled upon this picture of the first FlyArystan aircraft landing at Moscow Zukovsky airport (ZIA) in December.

This is quite an interesting move, because FlyArystan is the new low cost carrier of Air Astana, Kazakhstan largest airline. Air Astana is trying to replicate with FlyArystan the resounding success that Aeroflot has had in Russia with its low cost carrier Pobeda.

Russia and Kazakhstan were quite late to the low cost airline boom, but they are catching up!

What’s interesting is that in these geographically large countries (Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe!) it is the established national carriers that are developing the domestic low cost segment before any entrants gain a foothold (Air Astana’s core product is actually quite premium, even in economy class, as you can see in our flight review). Just as in the case of Pobeda and Aeroflot in Russia, FlyArystan has been a major made a positive contribution to the results of its parent company, Air Astana.

FlyArystan is currently operating an Airbus A320 fleet, but at the latest Dubai Air Show announced an order for 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8.

In the case of Kazakhstan this has come together with the overall growth of the commercial aviation industry and some liberalization measures. So, definitely a market to keep an eye on!