Air Transport

Kazakhstan's Air Astanna will be leasing its two Embraer 190LRs from Jetscape.

Aircraft leasing company Jetscape says it will be leasing the airline the two E-190LRs starting in April 2011.

Air Astana's president Peter Foster told ATI in May that the carrier would be getting two E-190LRs on lease in 2011 but until now the lessor has been under wraps.

Foster says in Jetscape's statement that "the E-190's range efficiency, size and passenger comfort is ideal for Air Astana."

"It will enable us to further grow our network within Kazakhstan, central Asia" and the Commonwealth of Independent States, he says.

As Air Astana continues to position itself as "the region's airline of choice", "we expect to expand our E-190 fleet in the future," he adds.

Air Astana mostly operates Fokker 50s on short-haul routes but it has one Airbus A319 and another six on order, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.