Kazakh carrier Air Astana has detailed a rapid reallocation of capacity undertaken within a couple of days of the beginning of the Iranian conflict.
Chief executive-designate Ibrahim Canliel says the airline immediately suspended operations to the Gulf region – including such cities as Dubai, Jeddah, Doha and Salalah – after the outbreak of hostilities on 28 February.
He says these operations amounted to 42 weekly flights. Within 48h, says Canliel, the airline had re-assigned capacity largely to Asian routes, adding 37 flights and upgrading to widebody Boeing 767s on 22 of them.
Among the Asian destinations to which the capacity has shifted are Delhi, Phu Quoc, Phuket, Istanbul and Tbilisi.
Canliel says the airline reallocated more than 50% of the freed-up capacity from the Gulf within this 48h period.
This effort has “proven the agility and resilience” of Air Astana, he adds. The airline also conducted 23 repatriation flights to return Kazakh citizens from the affected regions.
