Astana International Airport: Paolo Ricciotti on a short-term leave

"Chairman of the Board Mr. Paolo Ricciotti is currently on short-term leave for family reasons. This holiday was agreed with top-level management. Chairman of the Board will return to his duties this week," Lyudmila Kopeichuk, head of the marketing department, told Kazinform correspondent.

Earlier Kazakhstani blogger Denis Krivosheyev wrote in a Facebook post that ‘Paolo Ricciotti urgently jetted off to London'.

"They say Astana is alarmed. Local security officials lost track of Paolo Ricciotti and are trying to find out how a man under investigation [Kokshetau case: Ricciotti allegedly allotted 10 million for a local airport] would leave the country. By the way, the sources in Astana claim he decided to leave the country after a meeting at the managing company (...) Recall that the reliable sources claimed that on Saturday (October 15) director of the Astana International Airport Paolo Ricciotti boarded the KC-941 Astana-London flight at 2:45 p.m. local time. He had a one way ticket. No one knows when he will be back," Krivosheyev wrote.

Paolo Ricciotti was named as the new Chairman of the Board of JSC "Astana International Airport" in late July 2016. From 2012 to 2015 he worked as Director of Ground Services in "Air Astana" JSC.