OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 March 2008 was announced, that thick fog at Almaty Airport affected about 20 Air Astana flights on the 7 March. As a consequence of the unfavourable weather conditions five aircraft on the following flights landed at other airports: aircraft of Flight KC888 Beijing-Almaty and Flight KC890 Atyrau-Almaty landed at Astana Airport, aircraft of Flight 174 Shymkent-Almaty and Flight KC856 Astana-Almaty at the airpot of Bishkek city, Kyrgyzstan, and that of Flight KC306 Pavlodar-Almaty landed at Karaganda Airport. Three flights were postponed until the following day: Flight KC876 Moscow-Almaty, Flight KC860 Aktau-Almaty, and Flight KC882 Oral-Almaty.   

Berdykhan Agmurov, Control Centre Manager, says: “The weather at the airport of Almaty city has begun to worsen from yesterday (6 March). By midnight from 6 March, flight strip area was heavily fogged, and the minimum visibility was less than 100 m. In line with requirements of Almaty Airport, the minimum visibility for takeoff should be 200 m and that for landing should be 350 m. We hope weather to normalize soon”.

The flight delayed at around 2 to 10 hours.  Within first two hours hot tea has been provided to passengers and nursery for those traveling with kids under age of 7.

 After 4  hours of delay, passengers had been provided with hot meal, airline staff were kept  informing  passengers the reasons and circumstances of the delay  and made it less a negative experience.

Flights delays are an inconvenience not only to passengers but also the airline due to additional financial costs. Air Astana shares and understands the inconvenience such delays cause to its passengers and therefore would apologise for the current circumstances!

“Air Astana” is a full member of IATA and a single airline in Kazakhstan certified for fulfillment of the aircrafts maintenance on European standards EASA/Part 145.

“Air Astana” JSC is  joint enterprise of Kazakhstan state Holding “Samruk” and British company "BAE System" with the share holding of 51% and 49% accordingly.