In 2018, Air Astana grew capacity by 5%, with new routes added including the introduction of flights from Astana to Kazan, and additional frequencies from Astana to London Heathrow, Omsk, Dubai and Delhi; and from Almaty to Dushanbe, Baku, Hong Kong, Seoul and Bishkek. Additional services were added to Beijing, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev from both hubs. Furthermore, in March, the airline launched new Atyrau-Frankfurt-Atyrau services.

In March, Air Astana concluded a codeshare agreement with Cathay Pacific, its 11th codeshare partner, offering passengers convenient connections when travelling on to Asia and Australia via Hong Kong.

Air Astana celebrated the delivery of its first Embraer E190-E2 in December. The aircraft is the first of five ordered under a leasing agreement signed in 2017, with the remaining four aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2019. The new generation Embraer E190-E2 aircraft will replace older Embraer E190s in the fleet, which we have operated since 2011.

We also took delivery of our first A321neo in January, with a second arriving in June as part of an operating lease deal. The remaining 15 aircraft are to be delivered within the next two years enabling Air Astana to operate one of the youngest fleets in the world, while also benefitting from 15% lower fuel consumption than the previous model.

Operations at our dedicated Technical Centre at Astana Airport got underway in spring 2018. The centre provides maintenance support to Air Astana’s fleet and intends to provide services for third party airlines flying to Kazakhstan. The facility has been further bolstered with the addition of a new School of Aviation Mechanics, operating under EASA Part 66 Licence. This marks an important step for the airline as we seek to embrace the latest technologies to drive efficiency, while eliminating the airline’s dependence on a local monopoly supplier.

Air Astana continues its Ab-initio pilot training programme designed to train complete beginner pilots. The programme takes cadets from zero flight time to the point of flying a commercial jet airliner, trained to international standards, which will meet the requirements of EASA. As Air Astana’s fleet and route network grows, it will need to urgently increase the number of qualified pilots available. In 2018, 15 Ab-initio pilots graduated as airline pilots thanks to Air Astana’s training programme. The Ab-initio pilot training programme will continue and be expanded by 2026.

Substantial progress was made in further enhancing passenger experience through the launch of products such as MySEAT, MyUPGRADE and Last-minute upgrade, which immediately led to a 15% growth in sales. Air Astana also installed BRS (Baggage Reconciliation System) in Almaty and Astana airports to virtually eliminate any baggage loss.

According to the latest findings from Air Astana’s independent passenger surveys, satisfaction levels increased by 2.2 percentage points to 80% year-on-year, mainly driven by an increase in product offerings, the airline’s desire to consistently enhance its offering and maintain its world-class levels of hospitality and punctuality. The airline made full use of technology in 2018 to maximise satisfaction. This is reflected in the successful ramp up of digital mobile sales through the introduction of a new mobile application, which has helped grow digital sales contributions to 7% of total sales. This contribution is expected to double in size annually.

Air Astana maintains a low cost base throughout the Company as a strategic asset, which helps us to remain ahead of our competitors and mitigate high fuel prices. A number of efficiency drives were successfully undertaken in 2018, which mostly centre around making full use of our highly skilled workforce to, for example, roll out IFRS 9 and IFRS 15, and prepare for IFRS 16 without requiring vast consulting fees. We have also rolled out ‘Finnovation: working on efficiency’, a transformation project which sees members of the finance team transfer to operational departments to drive efficiency and automation and introduce more stringent cost management efforts at source.