Air Astana will continue to operate flights to international destinations with some changes during the autumn-winter period. From October 21, 2020, in accordance with the directive from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Air Astana will reduce the number of international flights to Turkey, the UAE, Ukraine and Germany. The weekly frequency of flights to Istanbul will decrease from 16 to 12 flights, to Dubai – from 12 to eight flights, to Kiev – from three to one flight and to Frankfurt – from six to four flights. At the same time, Air Astana intends to supplement these with charter flights to Sharm El Sheikh on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, and to the Maldives. The domestic flight schedule remains unchanged.
“We appreciate and understand the Government’s reasons for and efforts to suppress the spread of the virus. At the same time, travel, tourism and leisure industries are, collectively, a massive generator of global economic activity and jobs. It is vital that these industries are able to restart in a meaningful way at a point early in 2021. Failure to do so will have extreme financial and social consequences which will impact both national economies and peoples’ lives. We firmly believe, in line with IATA and the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), of which we are full members, that pre-departure COVID-19 testing for passengers intending to take international flights holds the key to a restart,” commented Peter Foster, CEO and President.
