KUALA LUMPUR: Air Astana, the leading carrier in Central Asia, is looking to commence thrice weekly direct flights between Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty and Kuala Lumpur from October this year.
The airline's president and chief executive officer Peter Foster said the initial plan to introduce Almaty-Kuala Lumpur flight in October 2024 has been brought forward to October 2023 with Singapore to be added into the leg next year.
"The intention is to start in October 2023. Demand is good. There's no question on that. The intention is to fly with an Airbus A321LR (long range) and we're double checking that it's got the range to do Almaty-Kuala Lumpur with a full payload.
"But subject to that, the intention is to start in October (2023) with three flights a week from Almaty to Kuala Lumpur," Foster told the New Straits Times after attending the 79th International Air Transport Association's annual general meeting and World Air Transport Summit last week.
Last week, the NST reported that Air Astana was planning to return to Kuala Lumpur with an onward service to Singapore from Almaty in October 2024.
Foster said Air Astana will file for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 airport slots once the verification on the aircraft type to be used on the route is completed.
"There's a bilateral that exists between Kazakhstan and Malaysia. Notwithstanding Covid-19, the bilateral never changed. That's in existence and can be effectively used instantaneously. The only thing we need is slots from KLIA Terminal 1," he added.
Foster said once the slots are approved, Air Astana will start selling the flight tickets immediately, which will be in the beginning of July 2023.
Speaking on Singapore, Foster said he had a good meeting with the representatives of Singapore Changi Airport and the route would be added in 2024 making the flight a four-stage route Almaty-Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Almaty.
Air Astana first introduced the Almaty-Kuala Lumpur flight in October 2009. However, the direct flight was stopped 11 years later in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.