OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 June 2009 was announced, that Air Astana airline opened a new direct flight from Astana to Novosibirsk, an industrial, scientific, cultural and transhipment point in Siberia.

The Fokker-50 will be used to perform the flights on the Astana-Novosibirsk-Astana route three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Kazakhstan has strong relations with Russia, so the opening of the new flight to Novosibirsk by Kazakhstan’s national air carrier is an important step in the development of business, economic and cultural relations between the capital of Kazakhstan and this Siberian federal district. We expect this route to be popular among businessmen, members of the Russian and Kazakh communities, students and Kazakhs attending medical centres and institutions in Novosibirsk.

Cardiologists and heart surgeons from the Meshalkin Institute will take part in an Air Astana charitable action, becoming the first passengers on the flight to Novosibirsk. The specialists from Novosibirsk will examine over 300 children with cardiovascular system disease and hold training for Kazakhs doctors.

“The Astana-Novosibirsk flight will be opened as part of the company’s new strategy directed at developing regional air transportation on the territory of Central Asia and CIS countries. New routes to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, were opened as part of this programme. Routes to border cities in the Russian Federation such as Omsk and Yekaterinburg are being considered. The Embraer 190, a new generation aircraft, was chosen to serve the regional routes. Two Embraer aircraft which have been obtained under operational lease will be added to the fleet by 2011. Until then, the Airbus A320 and the Fokker-50 will serve these routes,” Peter Foster, the president of Air Astana, said.

Convenient connections with Almaty, Kazakhstan’s business centre, and other regions in the country as well as with international routes to Istanbul and Dubai will be organised for passengers wishing to fly on this route.

Price for tickets from Astana to Novosibirsk including airport charges start from 7.437 RUR for a one-way ticket and 10.052 RUR for a return. You can purchase tickets in sales offices, through the company website www.airastana.com. The flight duration is 2 hours 25 minutes.