Air Astana marks 10th anniversary of China-Kazakhstan air travel opening

It has been said about today in Beijing during the press conference, said the Ambassador to China Nurlan Yermekbayev.

"Today we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the opening of Air Astana airline direct flights between China and Kazakhstan. In December 2002, I was working in Beijing and witnessed that joyous event for all " started his speech N.Ermekbaev.

To date many positive results have been achieved in the area of bilateral cooperation in the field of air transport, the ambassador continued. "For example, in May 2012 in Beijing, there was held the meeting of representatives of the Kazakh Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of Transport of China, at which the parties signed a memorandum of understanding", reminded N.Ermekbaev.

"On the basis of that document the agreement was reached to increase the number of flights between China and Kazakhstan. Namely, in 2012 to increase the frequency of air routes to 25 flights a week, from 2013 to 30 and in 2014 to 35 ", said the Ambassador.

In addition, as part of the memorandum it has been decided to open new lines of scheduled air travels - "Astana-Beijing", "Karaganda - Urumqi", "Shymkent-Urumqi" and "Almaty-Sanya", continued N.Ermekbaev.

Along with this, according to the results of negotiations with the administration of Special Administrative Region Xianggang, from August 2012 the company has been operating new flight «Air Astana» on route "Almaty-Hong Kong", which is popular in Kazakhstan, he added.

As the ambassador to China informed, currently «Air Astana» airline is committed to the highest standards of safety and service that meet customer expectations.

In 2012 it became the first airline in the CIS and Eastern Europe, received a rating of 4 stars from the international agency called «Skytrax». The same year at the International Air Show in Farnboro the national carrier of Kazakhstan has been declared the winner in the "Best Airline in Central Asia and India" for the award named "World Airlines 2012."

"I believe that in the short term, one of the factors enhancing bilateral cooperation in the field of transportation will be the rapidly growing tourism industry, as well as the planned international specialized exhibition EXPO-2017 in our capital Astana", summed N.Ermekbaev.

In turn, the president of «Air Astana» airline Peter Foster said that he was optimistic about the company's future and he was sure that there was "room for further growth."