Strong first half for Air Astana
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Kazakhstan’s national carrier, Air Astana, has reported strong first half results following a good performance on regional routes. The carrier posted pretax profits of US$36.9 million for H1 2011, an increase of 10.4% over 2010. Revenues rose by 18% to US$346 million and passenger numbers increased by 18.7%. Yet despite the strong performance, management remains cautious for the year because of rising fuel costs and general inflationary pressure.
The airline’s president Peter Foster stated that the results were “Satisfactory. Whilst margin has been affected by fuel price rises of one third, all markets have continued to strengthen resulting in robust revenue growth”.
The Kazak carrier took delivery of two of six Embraer 190s in the last six months, bringing the total fleet size to 24. It increased frequencies on all of its central Asian/CIS routes and launched new flights to Samara in southern Russia and Tbilisi in Georgia. Foster added; “Regional routes in particular have exceeded expectations.”
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