Air Astana Reports 2013 Net Profit of US$51.4 Million

Air Astana has declared a profit after tax of US$51.4 million for the full year 2013.

Whilst a 15.7% decline over 2012, the airline stated that without the combined effect of a one-off revenue adjustment in 2012 and currency exchange loss in 2013, underlying profit would have slightly exceeded that of the previous year.

Passenger numbers increased by 13.5% to 3.7 million and airline revenues by 10.5% to US$967 million.

At the end of the year the airline’s fleet stood at 30 aircraft with an average age of 6.4 years, following the retirement of the remainder of the Fokker 50 fleet and the introduction of new Boeing 767-300 ERs and Airbus A320s to replace older aircraft of the same type. The airline also increased its Embraer 190 fleet to eight aircraft.

Air Astana President, Peter Foster, said, “the airline made significant fleet and product upgrades in 2013, in addition to introducing new regional and long-haul routes. These are investments for the long term, and enable us to continue to strengthen our position as the leader in this region’s aviation markets. Of course, we were delighted to have been awarded ‘Best Airline, Central Asia and India’ by Skytrax for the second year running.”

Referring to prospects for 2014, Foster stated that whilst the year began promisingly, the devaluation of the Kazakh Tengue by 17% in mid February would have a negative effect on 2014 results.

“Approximately two thirds of our revenue is earned in Tengue whereas our costs are largely in US dollars, so there will be a hit both to the balance sheet and to the market in the short term. However over the medium term, we are confident that the airline’s competitive cost base combined with regional economic expansion will enable us to resume strong growth,” he said.

Air Astana commenced regular flight operations on 15 May 2002 and currently operates a network of almost 60 international and domestic routes from hubs in Almaty, Astana and Atyrau. The airline operates an all-western fleet of Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 757-200, Airbus A320 family and Embraer E-190 aircraft.

Air Astana is a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund Samruk Kazyna and BAE Systems, with respective shares of 51% and 49%.