ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 19 March 2025: Air Astana JSC and its subsidiary FlyArystan have announced results for Q4 2024 and the full year ending December 2024.
Based on its medium-term guidance, the airline group expects to deliver growth in 2025. This is underpinned by continued passenger growth on existing routes in nearby megamarkets, including China, India and the Gulf. The group remains ideally positioned to benefit from increased air travel in its underserved extended-home market, the world’s fastest-growing aviation region, according to IATA forecasts.
Q4 Highlights
Improvement across all key metrics with RASK growth successfully offsetting CASK
• Total revenue and other income, excluding non-recurring items, increased 14.3% to USD 312.1 million (Q4 2023: USD273 million).
• Adjusted EBITDAR excluding non-recurring items grew faster than capacity, increasing 39.6% to USD71.2 million (Q4 2023: USD51 million). Adjusted EBITDAR margin excluding non-recurring items improved to 22.8% (Q4 2023: 18.7%).
• ASK up 5.8% to 4.7 billion (Q42023: 4.5 billion).
• RPK increased 9.2% to 3.9 billion (Q42023: 3.5 billion).
• RASK growth ahead of CASK due to proactive capacity management, continuing the positive quarter-on-quarter trend to successfully offset cost inflation and protect yield.
• Group passengers carried up 6.9% to 2.2 million (Q42023: 2 million), with a 2.6pp improvement in average load factor to 81.7% (Q4 2023: 79.1%).
FY2024 Highlights
Proactive capacity management largely mitigated industry-wide cost pressures and delivered strong growth across both operating brands
• Total revenue and other income, excluding non-recurring items, increased 12.4% to USD1,308 million (FY2023: USD1,164 million).
• Adjusted EBITDAR excluding non-recurring items grew 16.1% to USD338.6 million (FY2023: USD291.6 million) with adjusted EBITDAR margin excluding non-recurring items of 25.9% (FY2023: 25.1%).
• ASK up 9.2% to 19.3 billion (FY 2023: 17.7 billion).
• RPK increased 10.1% to 16.1 billion (FY 2023: 14.6 billion).
• Progressive improvement in yield throughout the year, with capacity allocated to higher margin routes, mainly mitigating the impact of industry-wide cost inflation with higher unit revenues.
The RASK-CASK index differential improved progressively over the quarters and turned positive in Q4, resulting in an almost aligned RASK-CASK growth for the year.
• Group passenger growth of 11.2% to 9.0 million (FY2023: 8.1 million), with a 0.7pp improvement in average load factor to 83.5% (FY2023: 82.8%).
Air Astana Group CEO Peter Foster commented: “We achieved strong growth in our first year as a public company, fulfilling our promises set out at IPO despite the capacity and cost challenges impacting the wider industry.
“The Group added nearly a million passengers in 2024 with an increasing load factor, driven by growing demand for air travel across Kazakhstan, our extended home market and nearby megamarkets. By allocating capacity to higher-margin routes in Asia and the Gulf, we improved RASK by 2.6%, which largely offset the rise in unit costs.
“This resulted in a 12.4% increase in revenue to USD1.3 billion and a 16.1% improvement in adjusted EBITDAR to USD338.6 million, ahead of ASK growth of 9.2%.”
