Air Astana signs Flight Directors as GSA for UK and Ireland

Monday 12th August 2019

Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, has contracted with Flight Directors as its new General Sales Agent for the UK and Ireland, effective immediately.  The eight times SkyTrax award winner, which offers daily flights to London Heathrow to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan’s capital, has also moved its UK sales and marketing team to a new dedicated office in Chertsey, Surrey, very close to the main hub airport.

“We are delighted to be teaming with Flight Directors as our new GSA and also being able to offer an enhanced reservations call centre offering daily coverage between 08:00hrs and 20:00hrs, except 25^th December,” said Simon Rickman, Country Manager UK and Ireland.

London Gatwick-based Flight Directors, founded in 1984, is one of Europe’s leading specialists in passenger airline sales, marketing and distribution.  Multi-lingual customer service staff will offer a full service to Air Astana with dedicated telephone lines.  Flight Directors will complement existing online activities with a tailored web presence, highly optimised for the UK market.   

“We are very pleased to represent this widely regarded and prestigious carrier,” said Flight Directors’ Managing Director Paul Argyle. “We are looking forward to working with the team to highlight Kazakhstan ticket sales and beyond to Asia, via Air Astana’s attractive holiday stop-over programme in Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) and its second city Almaty,” said Paul Argyle.   

About Air Astana

Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, operates flights to over 60 domestic and international routes from hubs in Astana and Almaty. The company commenced operations on 15 May 2002. The Air Astana fleet consists of 36 aircraft including Boeing 767, 757, Airbus A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, Embraer E-190, E190-E2 aircraft. Air Astana became the first carrier from Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe to be awarded a prestigious 4-Star rating by Skytrax at its World Airline Awards 2012 and was also named ‘The Best Airline in Central Asia and India’ that year. Both achievements were repeated in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.   Air Astana was named a Winner in TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards in 2018 and 2019. Air Astana is a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, and BAE Systems, with respective shares of 51% and 9%.