At the Dubai Airshow 2019, Boeing and Air Astana have announced that the Kazakh carrier intends to order Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The Letter of Intent (LoI) includes 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets.
The national airline of Kazakhstan says that the 737 MAX airplanes will be operated by its low-cost subsidiary FlyArystan, which was first presented to the public in November 2018. The newly established low-cost carrier launced operations in May this year. It will commence international services to Moscow next month.
This order announcement comes during the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX family. The aircraft type lost its permission to fly in March this year after two crashes, just months apart from each other, that killed a total of 346 people. However, Peter Foster, President and CEO of Air Astana, commented on the agreement: “we believe that the MAX will provide a solid platform for the growth of FlyArystan throughout our region, once the aircraft has successfully returned to service.“
Nick Wenzel founded International Flight Network in 2016. He is the Social Media Manager and an Editor for IFN.news.
