OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2009. Air Astana held a press tour in the technical support centre of the airline. The aim of this event was to acquaint journalists with company's readiness for the autumn-winter navigation period. During the press tour, a round table discussion was held, which addressed issues of Kazakhstan civil aviation and safety, in particular equipment of Kazakh airports, passenger rights in case of delayed flights and technical condition of the air fleet. Program included a tour to the new hangar of Air Astana, technical equipment of which cost company half a million dollars. This hangar is equipped with modern equipment, which allows Air Astana airline to maintain high standards of airworthiness. Moreover, the average age of jet aircraft is 6 years.

"As you know, flight delays often occur in autumn and winter due to adverse weather conditions. To avoid threats to safety, airlines all over the world delay their flights. The average level of punctuality of flights by Air Astana for 2008 equaled to 82.3%, and to 74.3% in 2007. Flight delays caused not only by bad weather, but by a lack of adequate equipment and de-icing fluids at airports, as well as a  lack of qualified personnel. Air Astana from year to year heavily invests in purchase of de-icing machines and training staff to ensure safety and minimize flight delays. Since 2007 the airline purchased 7 vehicles to handle aircraft deicing. More than 500 thousand liters of de-icing fluid is purchased each year. The total investment spent on improving the quality of de-icing aircraft servicing is more than 1.4 million U.S. dollars. Thanks to the work done, we can speak about significant improvements compared to last year,” commented Dmitriy Pak, Air Astana technical ground services manager, an inspector for aircraft de-icing quality control at the International Association of Civil Aviation.

However, the problem of airport infrastructure is still relevant. For example, in case of flight delays at some Kazakhstan airports there is a shortage of hotel rooms, there are no alternative suppliers of hot food and waiting areas are not always adapted to a large number of people. Bearing this in mind, Air Astana airline is doing everything possible to ensure an appropriate level of passenger comfort by providing them with hot meals, travel sets, and in case of delay of more than 10 hours - comfortable hotel accommodation, even though delays were caused by the weather conditions not the airline. Air Astana practice is the world’s know-how, because usually airlines all over the world do not have similar range of services in cases of force-majeure situations.