What does Air Astana say about captain pay?

A slide on pilots in the airline's September 2025 investor presentation shows "c.€120k Net captain salary", next to the number of pilots and captain flying hours. The presentation gives no figure for first officers. At the same event, chief financial officer Ibrahim Canliel said flight deck crew are the most qualified and also the higher paid part of the airline, and that because they are mobile the company has to pay them on par with the international market. He put the airline's employee cost at about 19 per cent, against 25 to 35 per cent across the industry.12

How many hours do Air Astana captains fly?

Across the whole fleet, a captain at the Air Astana Group flew 701 hours in 2024, down from 804 in 2022, according to the presentation. On the Airbus fleet the figure was 709 hours in 2024, against 590 for European peers and 593 for Asia-Pacific peers in the company's own benchmark.1

How many pilots does Air Astana employ?

The group had 620 pilots in June 2025 and had hired 94 in 2025 up to that point. Since 2008 it has run an ab initio programme that trains Kazakhstani citizens aged 18 to 30 as pilots, chief executive Peter Foster said.12