Air Astana JSC, a Kazakhstan-based carrier, has launched a direct non-stop flight from Astana City to Dubai.

The new route will operate twice weekly services in addition to the existing daily services between Almaty and Dubai.

Air Astana is using its comfortable Airbus A320 aircraft on the route, which has a capacity to fly 16 business class and 132 economy class passengers.

At present Air Astana flies daily to Dubai from Almaty, situated in the south of Kazakhstan. The total number of passengers transported from Kazakhstan to Dubai since the start of Air Astana operations in 2002 is 183,475, said a statement.

Peter Foster, president of Air Astana, said: “The new route is opening in connection with increased economic demand. In particular, it is expected that the main consumers of Air Astana services will be both direct and transit passengers, mostly businessmen and Kazakhstan Muslims performing Haj to Makkah through Dubai. In addition we expect an increasing number of students and tourists to make use of the new route, which is representative of the improvement of living standards among Kazakhstan’s population and high economic growth of the country.”

Chan Gammampila, regional general manager, Middle East, Africa & Indian Subcontinent commented: “In 2006 Air Astana operated three flights a week between Dubai and Almaty. The airline now flies daily to Almaty and with the addition of Astana, the total number of flights from Dubai to Kazakhstan will be nine flights per week. We are witnessing encouraging growth in traffic and expect growth to continue due to improving business relations between the two countries.”

The Astana-Dubai flight duration is 4 hours 40 minutes and the cost of return tickets on Astana-Dubai-Astana or Dubai-Astana-Dubai route including airport taxes ranges from Dh2,080 to Dh4,560 for economy class and from Dh6,230 to Dh7,640 for business class. – TradeArabia News Service