Air Astana: How can Kazakhstan’s flag carrier boost its dwindling share price?

By&nbspBotagoz Marabai

Published on 20/06/2025 - 15:44 GMT+2

As Central Asia’s only hose listed connected 3 banal exchanges, Kazakhstan’s flagship bearer Air Astana has led nan region’s aviation assemblage for complete 20 years.

Since its IPO successful February 2024, nan airline’s stock value has dipped. Ahead of their half twelvemonth results, Euronews sat down pinch Air Astana’s CEO, Peter Foster, to talk his plans to raise stock prices and grow Kazakhstan’s emblem carrier's world presence.

Q: How do you measure investor sentiment pursuing Air Astana's IPO, and what cardinal strategies do you scheme to instrumentality to support banal and shareholder value?

A: The banal value has been a spot disappointing since nan IPO successful February of past twelvemonth — nan banal value has declined. The main constituent to make is that nan company, successful fact, has performed highly good and continues to do so.

So of course, our occupation is to negociate nan institution to nan champion of our expertise and of people to maximise shareholder value. We person precocious announced a very important dividend. In fact, nan largest dividend that we’ve ever paid, and 1 of nan largest dividends successful nan airline manufacture today. And that’s a reflection of nan beardown performance, of nan beardown equilibrium sheet, nan beardown rate balance. We judge that if we proceed to negociate nan institution good and if it performs well, nan banal value will travel eventually. The cardinal really is to proceed managing nan hose successful nan measurement that we person successful each [my] 20 years here: To support focussed connected cost, to support costs competitory truthful that nan hose remains competitory successful an progressively challenging world marketplace and to maximise work levels to guarantee apical people safety standards and by doing so, we tin leverage nan value of nan merchandise to guarantee nan hose continues being profitable.

Q: You person outlined awesome strategical opportunities for world maturation — successful nan Gulf, Western Europe, China, Korea, Japan and India. What would these partnerships entail?

A: Kazakhstan is simply a state of 20 cardinal group and yet Air Astana coming is astatine 62 craft and of people we intend to turn that to 84 craft by nan extremity of 2028. When you look astatine nan size of Air Astana and maturation floor plan and nan wide size of nan Kazakhstan market, you spot that of people we are proud to service nan Kazakhstan marketplace and Kazakhstan’s travellers, but it’s not capable to alteration nan hose to turn arsenic we are doing into a important world hose player. Therefore, we perfectly request to leverage our position successful adjacent proximity to immoderate of nan world’s largest markets to guarantee that we are besides getting a important information of our customers from those ample markets which are overmuch bigger than Kazakhstan.

The champion measurement to leverage that geographical position is to activity pinch partner airlines from those countries. We’re presently successful discussions pinch China Southern successful China, we are having discussions pinch carriers successful India, we’ve precocious signed a codification stock pinch Japan Airlines for nan Japanese market, we person an existing commercialized narration pinch Lufthansa for occidental Europe, pinch Turkish Airlines for Turkey. So, this is nan measurement that an hose of our aspiration pinch a location marketplace that is comparatively mini tin leverage nan value of nan hose and nan surface science of location of nan hose pinch partners to grow beyond its ain borders.

Q: With nan existent shortage of fuel-efficient aircraft, really is Air Astana adapting its operational strategies?

A: The manufacturers and nan motor manufacturers introduced caller motor exertion from NASA 10 years ago. Without going into method detail, it was exertion that was chiefly driven by nan request to supply higher bypass engines, which are much fuel-efficient. You get much powerfulness from little substance burned, which saves nan hose money and of course, it’s much environmentally sustainable. In fact, connected an mean flight, it takes to London [from Astana], a 7.5-hour flight, we tin prevention up to 20-25% much substance than would person been burning successful nan past times. So that’s very good. The problem pinch that is that nan motor exertion is comparatively new, analyzable and it has been taxable to reliability issues which are ongoing and truthful we’re not getting rather nan ratio aliases nan sustainability readings that we had hoped for. But those problems will resoluteness themselves successful clip and truthful we tin expect to get nan afloat benefits some successful position of economics and nan situation arsenic we spell forward.

Q: What greenish technologies aliases sustainability initiatives is Air Astana adopting to lend to Kazakhstan’s net-zero goals?

A: We were 1 of nan first movers to bring successful nan Airbus neo long-range aircraft. In fact, we were nan first hose to motion for those craft astatine Paris Air Show 10 years ago. They are importantly better, much optimal than nan erstwhile motor exertion that was deployed connected craft connected those agelong routes and we will proceed to present those craft successful bid to meet nan sustainability targets.

The manufacturers are moving connected enhanced exertion successful position of aerodynamics, successful position of helping design, successful position of motor design, arsenic we spell forward. But inevitably nan important information of our realisation of net zero will travel from c credits and nan CORSIA strategy (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), which has been introduced and endorsed by nan United Nations and each personnel states.