Air Astana first quarter revenue up 13% to $260 million

Air Astana reported its total revenue was up 13% year-on-year (YoY) in the first quarter to $264.7 million and its EBITDAR excluding non-recurring items was $50 million, up 6.9% (YoY). Its passengers were up 18.5% YoY to 1.9 million in the first quarter and its load factor was down 1.2 percentage point YoY to 81.2%. By the end of the quarter, it had 50 aircraft in its fleet. The group is on track to add net seven aircraft in the year ahead, bringing the total fleet to 56. Its cash and balances were $369.5 million, and its net debt was at $350.9 million at the end of the first quarter. ""Passenger demand remains strong across both Air Astana and FlyArystan, underpinned by increasing levels of air travel within Kazakhstan, across Central Asia and to our nearby mega markets of China and India,"" said Air Astana Group CEO Peter Foster. ""With international bookings for the important summer period ahead of last year, we are ramping up capacity by expanding the fleet and optimising resources."" The company is in the process of starting a share repurchase programme for the first part of the employee incentive programmes, with an amount of up to $12M. This part of the programme is expected to be completed by February 2025.