Air Astana Group grows China operations

The Air Astana Group,  which includes Air Astana and low-cost carrier FlyArystan , increased capacity to China by 81% compared with summer 2025, reaching 49 flights per week across seven destinations

Air Astana Group grows China operations
Air Astana (credit Markus Mainka/Adobe Stock). FlyArystan (credit Thiago Trevisan/Adobe Stock).

The Kazakhstan-based carrier group launched new routes including Almaty to Shanghai and Xi'an, Astana to Guangzhou and Aktau to Urumqi.

Almaty to Guangzhou became a daily service from September 1, while FlyArystan will add Almaty to Chongqing twice weekly from September 23.

The group reported an on-time performance of 86% for the three summer months of 2026, up 12.5 percentage points year on year and 16% higher than the European carrier average for June to July 2026.

During the peak period the group also operated 525 domestic flights per week across Kazakhstan, equivalent to 75 per day, alongside 57 weekly flights to the Caucasus.

Other network additions included new Central Asia routes to Samarkand, Issyk-Kul and Batumi, and increased frequencies to Tashkent, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Bodrum.