The Air Astana Group has announced the signing of an agreement with Air Lease Corporation (ALC) for the lease of seven Airbus A321NX (LR) aircraft, with deliveries due to commence in 2026 with all seven airplanes in service by 2028.
The agreement between the parties was signed on July 26, 2024, following approval by the board of the Air Astana Group, which includes Air Astana (the national carrier of Kazakhstan) and its budget subsidiary, FlyArystan.
The newly signed agreement will expedite the group’s aspirations to operate a fleet of 80 aircraft by the end of 2028. Currently, the Air Astana Group of airlines operates 55 aircraft in total split between the two carriers. The Air Astana fleet comprises 11 Airbus A320s, 13 A320neos, two A321-200s, and four A321neos. It also operates three Boeing 767-300ERS on long-haul services plus five Embraer 190s on regional and domestic services.
According to data obtained from ch-aviation, the carrier is committed to taking a further three A320neos from Avalon Leasing although it has no outstanding orders for new planes with Airbus directly. 10 of the current A320 fleet are already leased from ALC.
The carrier does have outstanding commitments for Boeing aircraft, however, via a lease agreement signed in November 2022. The company was due to receive three Boeing 787-9s at the start of 2025. However, due to production delays, these new widebody aircraft will not now happen until “late 2025” according to Boeing. The carrier also previously had an order with Boeing for a trio of 787-8s although, in light of the signed lease agreement for the larger 787-9s, the status of this order remains unclear.
The new widebodies are required to fulfill Air Astana’s long-held ambition to fly directly from Kazakhstan to the United States – a distance that its current 767-300s are unable to operate
The Air Astana Group provides scheduled passenger and cargo services on domestic, regional, and international routes across Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Far East, the Middle East, India, and Europe from its base at Almaty Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport (NQZ). The airline operates on 87 routes serving 39 destinations in 20 countries.
