Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s leading carrier, has been awarded second place in the "Best Airline in Eastern Europe" category of the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards 2011. In 2010, Air Astana took third place in the same category. The awards ceremony took was held in France’s National Air and Space Museum on the final day of the Paris Air Show.

Skytrax’s World Airline Awards have been organised on an annual basis since 1999. More than 18.8 million travellers from 100 countries took part in the latest Skytrax independent rating survey, which evaluates the quality of services amongst 200 international carriers based on almost 40 measurement criteria.

“Air Astana is very proud to be once again recognised by Skytrax as the leader from the Central Asia / CIS region in consistently demonstrating the highest standards of international passenger service. I want to sincerely congratulate all Air Astana personnel and offer my gratitude for their enthusiasm and dedication, which has allowed us to achieve such a high rating and to improve our ranking in comparison to 2010,”  commented Peter Foster, President of Air Astana.

Over the past year, Air Astana has significantly improved their quality of service, both in the air and on the ground. Business class passengers on international flights are now offered the portable KCTV entertainment players, which allows them to enjoy  a wide range of audio programmes and video programmes, including a selection of the latest movies.  Air Astana has also upgraded seats in the business  class cabin of the Boeing 757 flights, which enables  passengers to turn their seats into comfortable beds with one touch of a button.  The same seats will be introduced on the Boeing 767 fleet before the end of 2011. In 2010, the range of entertainment in economy class was upgraded, together with introduction of award winning children's travel kits.