Air Astana Puts More Cargo Capacity into Germany

Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s national carrier, introduced a new aircraft type on their daily Frankfurt to Astana and Almaty service as of Friday 16 May.
The introduction of the carrier’s third new Boeing 767-300ER on this sector not only offers more passenger capacity with a brand new business class concept, but greatly increases cargo capacity on this route compared to the previous Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

The nonstop service to the capital city of Astana with direct connection on the same aircraft to Almaty, leaves FRA in the early evening with an early next day arrival in Kazakhstan.

This increase in cargo capacity is being welcomed by shippers and agents in Germany who can take advantage of a far better volume/ratio belly hold capacity compared to the older and small B757s.
The newly designed Business Class with 30 Lie-Flat Sleeper beds will surely be of interest to the regular flow of business traffic between both countries.
Even the economy class has a new image and more space along with individual 23 centimeter TV screens.

Air Astana has been building its cargo product step by step during the past two years and the additional space now offered will enable them to cater better for demand to this oil rich country which depends quite a lot of the speedy delivery of oil & gas equipment into the producing regions.

The three new B767-300ERs are replacing older B767 models which were mainly in use on domestic services between Astana, Almaty and Atyrua and some international routes.
The carrier has a total of 33 jets in their fleet, made up of the new B767ERs alongside B757-200, Airbus A320s and Embraer 190s. Average aircraft age is put at six years, which gives the carrier one of the most modern fleets available today.

The carrier recently announced that it is to increase its frequencies in Europe with the introduction in 2015 of flights to and from Paris and Prague.
On top of this, the Kazakhstan national carrier began charter flights from Astana and Almaty to popular vacation destinations in Greece and Spain.

This expansion will also enable the carrier to offer much needed increased cargo space to and from the country.

John Mc Donagh