Air Astana is the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, and they're a pretty awesome little carrier. I flew them a few years ago from Seoul to London, and was very pleasantly surprised. If you're curious to read about those flights: Air Astana's 767 business class from Seoul to Almaty Air Astana's A321 business class from Almaty…
Continue reading: Beautiful: Air Astana’s New A321LR
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Has an airline used curtains between Y+ and Y before? It just looks like extra legroom economy, and not a premium economy product. That is kind of interesting to me.
The interior looks great!
Too bad the livery is just another boring Eurowhite snoozer...
@Gurujanitor: The "Old" (Soviet) Aeroflot had this in many of their IL 86s, Il 62s and TU 154s to the non-Russian soviet republics and going to Africa. There was of course no official Y+ seating at the time (and Y legroom was a generous 33-34"+) but it was used on an unpublished racial basis, Slavs in "Salon 2" and non-Slavs / Africans in "Salon 3". And some IL 86s had 7 abreast seating instead of 8 in some "salon 2" rows. "Salon 1" was First Class.
Does the fact that it is leased from Air Lease Corporation explain the German flag and D-xxxx registration? Anyway, looks beautiful and good on them!
@gurujanitor: SK uses a curtain to 'separate' their Y+ cabin on long haul (A333, A343). I recently had a flight in Y+ with Cathay and they even had a hard wall between those cabins.
@import the vikings
I think your messing up Economy+ and premium economy.
Eco+ (Y+) is just standard economy class with extra legroom.
@Dennis
No, the D-XXXX registration is likely provisional and applied by Airbus Hamburg so that the plane is legally allowed to undergo its test flights etc - all of the A320 family aircraft built in Hamburg are fitted with the D-XXXX registry for the purposes of test / delivery flights. Same holds true for the F-XXXX registration Airbus Toulouse applies on the A380 and other aircraft assembled there.
The business class seats are from Thompson and the economy seats are from Recaro.
Beautiful Air Astana A321 bird; your reviews of these 'exotic' airlines are always fun and informative
I don't know if I would call it beautiful. The finishing and colors of the setas just seem rather bland, compared to what Aer Lingus chose. Still, it is a nice upgrade, and the seat itself matters, I guess, not the colors.
Is that premium economy or economy plus?
If you're wondering, as I was, why Air Astana doesn't fly to Astana, and where Astana has got to, it got renamed Nur-Sultan this year after the previous President. (Also formerly known as Akmoly > Akmolinsk > Tselinograd > Akmola!)
Almaty, on the other hand, was the capital until 1997, although it hasn't had quite so many names (Only Alma-Ata and Verniy.)
Glad that's cleared up...