Air Astana - by Stuart Boate

6 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Almaty-London Economy class. I was pleasantly surprised apart from the fun of the departure lounge trying to process two departing aircraft at the same time through one set of security gates with people going to the wrong aircraft the experience was good. B757-200 with about 20 business class seats and the rest economy, IFE basic with central overhead screens, with English and Russian language channels, entertainment programs were enough to keep you occupied. The food and drink service and FAs were good, enough food that was tasty and hot, attentive service overall I was pleasantly surprised.

Air Astana - by J Roberts

15 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

On 16th December the Atyrau - Istanbul flight was delayed for almost two days. No information was available and when passengers did manage to get through to the airport information was limited or inaccurate. No apologies were offered or even any refreshments. Crews of shift change workers from the oilfield pushed and shoved while Air Astana staff looked on. The check-in staff at Atyrau Airport are badly trained. Customer service is apparently something they are unfamiliar with. No assistance was offered for flight connections that were missed due to Air Astana's weeks of delays. This airline offers no service.

Air Astana - by N Edmonstone

10 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Aytrau to Iistanbul - 9hr delay at Aytrau with no information and terrible conditions at airport. Once departed we were served breakfast, flight good. Boeing 757 a bit dated but okay - Air Astana offer 2% per hour of delay as compensation, not much but better in your pocket.

Air Astana - by M Oussalah

12 November 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

AMS-GUW Business class B767. The ground service by Menzies has improved as there were 3 check in desks as opposed to 1 in the past. Menzies lounge which is used by Air Astana and many other airlines is worthless. B767 bought off KLM is aging but in decent enough condition. IFE in business class is basic but offered a nice selection of movies for this 4 hours flight. The crew is professional and pleasant and the food up to international 3 star airline standards.

Air Astana - by K Glavimans

18 September 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

ALA-DXB in business. Did the same stretch a couple of weeks ago. No problems at check in and this time invitation given for Asiana lounge - all drinks and food has to be paid for. Boarding fine, all went smooth despite it was a full plane (even in business class). Pre departure drinks offered. Soon after departure warm nuts and aperitif served, followed by dinner. Starter was salad with smoked duckbreast, which was pretty tastefull. Wine served was a Chilean Chardonay, very good. Choice of chicken, calamaris and salmon or some vegie dish. Desert were tartlets (I did not take them but my neighbour didn't like them) and assorted cheese from the trolley, which were fantastic. Staff very polite and professional and did make you feel special. Plane arrived 20 mins early. All in all a very pleasant flight, better than 5 weeks ago. If they continue their improvements, they could become 4 star.

Air Astana - by A Marsovich

3 August 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

PEK-ALA-PEK and ALA-TSE-ALA, on B767 and B757. The service was fairly good, however PEK-ALA was terrible both safety and service wise. The seatbelt sign remained on through out the entire 6 hour flight, food was terrible, and served straight after the take off with little or no customer service focus. The safety demonstration made me more nervous rather than feel safe, as the crew kept on joking around during the demonstration. Inflight, there was a lot of noise in the fwd galley of the B767 coming from the cabin crew laughing and chatting throughout the most of the flight. ALA-TSE-ALA) on B757s and what a difference! The service and the safety seemed excellent! ALA-PEK was good as well, with a few issues from chinese pax who kept smoking in the toilets inflight. We did not see the crew check inside the toilets after the two smokers had left the lavatory for any remains of the cigarette butts. Overall, we found the B757s to be far more comfortable and roomy, seats were leather and well padded for extra comfort. The safety was there, but not to the levels we used to, and the service is fair.

Air Astana - by Kenneth Glavimans

2 August 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Almaty-Dubai in business. Check in ok, be aware they only open desk about 1 hour 50 before flight and you have to wait in the open area of the ALA airport. Check in no problems, although she was quite slow. Pain to have to wait again before customs. No lounge and no separate C class boarding. Once onboard fine reception. Coat taken and local bubbly wine served. Departed on time, more bubbly wine and nuts served. Amenity kit (eye mask, lipbalm, toothbrush, slippers) provided as well as menu. Food ok, starter quite small and basic (salmon with a shrimp and some salad). Main had 3 good choices (chicken, lamb, salmo), only by the time I was served only lamb left. Dessert was choice from trolley, either sweet or french cheese. No port and no red wine. White wine was warm. Coffee good, Baileys served in big glass with ice, nice to round off. Flight departed and arrived on time. All in all good experience, they are getting there. Boeing 757 had leather seats with about 50 inch pitch and fair recline. Will fly them again as there are not many airlines flying out of ALA.

Air Astana - by Emanuele Borella

27 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Economy flight Almaty-Atyrau in KZ and Atyrau - Amsterdam, direct flight. In both cases it was a confortable Boeing 767, good, friendly service. I will choose Air Astana for my next trip to KZ.

Air Astana - by David Nicholls

22 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I fly Air Astana regularly in and out of Europe and internally in Kazakhstan. The quality of aircraft is slowly being upgraded. All pilots and air crew are trained in the UK (BAE owns 50%) and the air fleet is maintained in London so this is a big step up in providing confidence in the safety of the aircraft compared with most companies operating out of the CIS. On board the interiors are a little 'old' and the entertainment is a little lacking compared to the best western and eastern airlines but the flights are reasonably short so it's not too much of a problem. Business seats are generous though do not fully recline and room in economy is OK. Meals in business are pretty good and in economy I would rate them as good as, if not better, than that offered by the European airlines on the same routes. I always find the staff friendly and helpful whether flying front or back.

Air Astana - by Mike Good

1 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Travelled DXB-ALA-DXB last week in business class. Excellent service and great food. Service compares well and is better than many other carriers in this region.

Air Astana - by P Irving

10 April 2007   Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Several legs within Air Astana in both economy and business class (TSE- GUW, GUW-ALA, ALA-TSE). Consistently good experience. Planes are ok, especially the new A320. FAs very young and more friendly than at Aeroflot. Wouldn't trust them to handle an emergency, though. Pilots sounded ok, even an Irishman (I think) on the 737. Food is simply excellent, even in economy - smells and looks good and tastes like home- made. All in all a good experience, esp. when compared to other airlines in the region.

Air Astana - by Malik Oussalah

27 October 2006

AMS-GUR-AMS (3 times), B757 economy: Good flights, fairly pleasant FA's the food wasn't great but the seats were roomy and new. Almaty-Atyrau B727-200 business. The plane interior was in a horrible state, the crew was the Mr. Hide of the regular Astana FA's. The problem with air Astana is inconsistency. They could be as great as they can be bad.

Air Astana - by James Gilbert

22 September 2006

London to Almaty return. Business Class. Clean 757 with loads of legroom, great food, very friendly FA's. Their english is good enough to get you what you need. This service easily rivals BMED's flights that we took the month before. All in all, a better value than BMED and just as comfy. Highly recommended.

Air Astana - by Ian Hanley

11 July 2006

Astana to Kostanay and back with my wife and baby daughter on an Astana turbo prop 50 seater Fokker. Basic, as expected but reasonable in flight snack and supply of non alcoholic drinks etc and more leg room than on Boeing - punctual too. However, what about maintenance and aircraft safety. Seats didn't lock into an upright position, they just flop about and no offer whatsoever on either flight of a baby lap belt. BAe systems own 49 % of this airline.

Air Astana - by Jack Sheldon

1 July 2006

Business class FRA-TSE, then TSE-ALA-PEK. First leg was in a 757, obviously fairly old, but well-maintained and clean. Very generous seat- pitch. Business class was only half full so plenty of room. FAs were attentive and responsive. Special meal failed to show up, but standard meal was perfectly adequate. Second leg. The main problem is that Air Astana were incapable of checking through-flights. From the explanation I received at check-in this is standard practice at Air Astana. Not even the bags could be checked in, so they had to be recovered in ALA. Once there things got worse – I recovered my bag and was informed that I couldn’t check in for my continuation flight until 2 hours prior to departure. I was left hanging around for 2 hours, with little to do. I worked on my laptop for 2 hours till the power ran down. The legs TSE- ALA and ALA-PEK were both in A320s. Nice wide business class seats but just adequate seat pitch. Service very attentive.

Air Astana - by Stuart Boate

24 May 2006

Now flown 3 times with Air Astana. Aktau - Aktobe, Aktobe - Almaty and Frankfurt to Almaty, each time they get better! They were pretty good from the first flight. Food is good and plentiful, staff helpful, soft on the eye and multilingual, safety announcements in Russian, Kazak and English. IFE okay. Thank You Air Astana.

Air Astana - by Dave Stanley

30 March 2006

Economy class from London to Almaty and Almaty to Shymkent. Things started badly when our flight was delayed 16 hours for technical reasons. We were put in a reasonable hotel and given a basic meal and breakfast. The next morning, check in was chaos at Heathrow because not enough counters were open. The flight itself was acceptable but not good. The B757's interior was old and some seat backs did not work correctly. The food was just about acceptable, however, we were served our evening meal mid morning and our breakfast in the evening. Clearly the meal service was still expecting an evening flight. The flight to Shymkent was OK, on an older Fokker 50. Not much leg room but it was only short.

Air Astana - by Davison Horst

18 February 2006

Economy class, from Almaty to Astana and return. Flight time just under 2 hours each way. Outbound on a new B737-800 and returned on a B757-200. This airline is privately owned equally by Kazhakstan and European interests. Believe that the pilots are European and the cabin crew is multinational. Check in was smooth with polite ground staff. Boarding organized and efficient. Planes were immaculate. Safety features are presented similar to Western airlines. Seating was comfortable. Food and service were excellent. Do yourself a favor, folks. Fly Air Astana wherever they go instead of the Air France, Lufthansa, KLM etc. You will be happy that you did.

Air Astana- by Sam Caldwell 

28 October 2005

Flew Astana in September -- a few hesitations at first, as could not find much about them. As it turned out, this is not a bad airline at all. Used Lufthansa mostly on same route, and Astana is up there with them. Airport in Almaty needs some attention to improve services for passenger, but on the plane service was great -- and what a bunch of pretty staff to serve you! Food okay, and seats in biz were very comfortable. In flight entertainment lacking, but flights not too long and not a real problem. Would recommend them to anyone who has had to suffer inconsistencies of BMED if you travel via London, and you can avoid FRA and Lufthansa if you pick Astana via London!

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