BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jun. 5
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan’s Air Astana airline company is converting some of its Boeing-767 planes so that they could transport both cargo and passengers, company’s CEO Peter Forster said, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.
Kazakhstan’s Air Astana announced its plans to create a division for international freight transport on May 28, 2020. The announcement said that the division - Air Astana Cargo – was to operate three converted Boeing 767-300 planes.
“Currently we operate 22 charters in direction of China and European countries. We are rebuilding some of our Boeing-767 planes so that they carry both passengers and cargo, and establishing a separate Air Astana cargo transportation division. Very soon, two additional Boeings will be redesigned to transport goods, which is our response measure to the crisis,” Foster said.
Foster noted that despite current difficult period the company found new niches to operate in.
“In the current conditions air cargo transporters are surviving better and thus Air Astana made the decision to enter this field. Initially, we were a company exclusively engaged in passenger transportation, but now we are studying the issue of cargo transportation,” Foster said.
Established in 2001, Air Astana company is one of the largest airline companies in Kazakhstan. Prior to emergency state, Air Astana operated a fleet of 34 aircrafts on over 60 domestic and international routes.
In order to prevent coronavirus spreading in Kazakhstan, the number of flights was reduced by 438 flights per week on international destinations on 97 routes, which makes up 99 percent of all international flights implemented.
Additionally, all domestic flights have been cancelled and no regular air services operated in the country over the period from Apr. till May 1, 2020.
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