"FlyArystan has its own Golden Eagle!," the Kazakh budget airline announced on its website as it welcomed a second brand new Airbus A320neo to its fleet. EI-KBS was ferried from the Airbus delivery center in Toulouse to Astana Nazarbayev International (NQZ) on December 1, arriving one calendar day later.The name of the aircraft, Berkut or Беркут, represents the Asian golden eagle (it is also the name of a former unit of the Ukrainian special police). It was chosen by the low-cost carrier's passengers in a competition. Runner-up was the Latin name for eagle, Aquila, so more people will have been satisfied with the general rare-bird-of-prey theme. FlyArystan's first brand new A320neo is called "Leo," after the constellation with the same name (but it also goes well with the red lion brandishing the airline's tail.)This is the 13th aircraft in FlyArystan's fleet, joining "Leo," an older A320neo built a little over six years ago and previously flying for mainline carrier Air Astana, as well as ten A320-200s. The latter have an average age of 9.6 years. Most also come from Air Astana, apart from a couple passed on from Vistara through BOC Aviation.This reporter did catch a glimpse of the new Golden Eagle of FlyArystan while attending the Airbus Summit in Toulouse on November 30. Alas, photographing customer aircraft was not allowed, so we have to rely on a trusted Twitter account to share the image of the exact plane with you.
Qualitative and quantitative growth
FlyArystan's Managing Director, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, commented on the delivery,
“FlyArystan is the first budget carrier in Kazakhstan. With the arrival of the 13th Airbus A320 (neo), FlyArystan will offer not only more affordable, but also more environmentally friendly flights both within Kazakhstan and beyond. Moreover, this is the second aircraft in the configuration of 188 seats, which was produced specifically for FlyArystan. The addition of an environmentally friendly aircraft to the fleet is another achievement in the innovative development of the airline. Since the autumn of this year, we have launched check-in terminals for FlyArystan passengers in Almaty and Astana. We are growing both quantitatively and qualitatively so that our passengers can benefit from the best practices in aviation.”
Six more planes by the end of next year
FlyArystan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kazakhstan's national airline, Air Astana, which is owned 51% by the Kazakh government and 49% by British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company BAE Systems PLC. It commenced operations in May 2019, and despite a wobbly first couple of years, today, FlyArystan operates to 44 destinations, including 28 domestic and 16 international.
The airline recently carried its eight millionth passenger. Its parent carrier plans to grow the LCC's fleet to 19 aircraft by the end of 2023.
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