Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, has launched flights to Mumbai, the commercial capital of India. This marks the second destination for the airline in India, after Delhi where it has been operating for over two decades, mostly under monopoly until IndiGo launched services in 2013 between Delhi and Almaty. The current India – Kazakhstan operations were posted earlier on this site.
Air Astana has developed its India operations very effectively, making the most of the equipment it has in its fleet, followed by trying out flights from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, as well as from Shymkent where its low cost subsidiary FlyArystan operated. The Shymkent flight did not last long, while Air Astana did not re-start the Astana – Delhi flights post pandemic. Interesting as it may sound, the name of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan changed from Astana to Nursultan and back to Astana between the start of the pandemic and the normalisation of the situation.
In 2023, IndiGo launched flights to Almaty, a thrice a week operation which became daily in 2024. I have always wondered how Air Astana will fight off the battle from IndiGo. It tried multiple variations, including getting its LCC subsidiary into the picture but has since stabilised with its strategy. Kazakhstan has had a change in its visa policies leading to a huge influx of tourists from India. This has meant that there has been space for both the carriers to sustain and Air Astana helping one-stop connections to Russia and some European capitals. Interestingly, the Delhi – Almaty sector timings are worth noting. IndiGo operates in the dead of night, against all traditional wisdom of aligning leisure sectors to hotel check-in timings, while Air Astana has a split schedule, with various time variations across the week.
On this backdrop, one might think that Mumbai is a ploy to take on IndiGo by expanding beyond Delhi, but it is not. Air Astana had announced flights to Mumbai in 2020. The flights were to begin in June 2020, but the pandemic had other plans.
Mumbai flights
The thrice weekly operations at Mumbai sees a mix of A320 and A321 aircraft being deployed going by the booking engines. The schedule is split with three different timings for three different days of operations.
KC291 ALA0905 – 1425BOM 3
KC291 ALA2020 – 0140 (+1)BOM 4
KC291 ALA0435 – 0955BOM 7
KC292 BOM1525 – 1925ALA 3
KC292 BOM0240 – 0635ALA 5
KC292 BOM1100 – 1445ALA 7
The timings changes are a mix of slot availability and aircraft availability issues. The airline also has similar split schedules across other sectors and sometimes, this has to be replicated on new sectors to ensure that the one-stop connectivity is maintained. At such times, there remains a need to do a major rejig to the network.
Network Thoughts
Air Astana’s flight to Almaty will be the second connection to Central Asia from Mumbai with Uzbekistan Airlines operating twice a week service to Tashkent. The route from Mumbai is longer than Delhi and thinner. The airline has to now compete with IndiGo which has periodical offers for one-stop via Delhi. Central Asia is still new for Indian’s and not yet as much on radar as Indonesia or Vietnam, so much so that Mumbai Airport’s official social media handle posted this information calling out flights to Almaty with images of Astana.
The regulator’s data for the last quarter of 2024 shows approximately 350 passengers per day each way between Delhi and Almaty. This includes passengers who are bound for Almaty and traveling beyond, but does not include passengers who reach Almaty via a stop in another country. Air Astana, with higher frequencies and capacity, had a smaller share of the market indicating that IndiGo has turned the page here, despite its not so friendly timings.
However, Mumbai is the next logical destination for any airline looking to grow in India, for the sheer size of the market and affordability. How will Air Astana perform?
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