The FBRK editorial team continues its report on the total remuneration amounts of members of the executive bodies of Kazakhstan's national companies.
Previously, we wrote about the bonus amounts for board members of JSC NC KazMunayGas, JSC NAC Kazatomprom, JSC NC QazaqGaz, JSC Kazakhtelecom, JSC KEGOC, JSC Samruk-Energy, JSC Kazpost, JSC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and JSC Samruk-Kazyna Construction, which are part of the Kazakh investment holding company JSC Samruk-Kazyna.
Today we will be focusing on Kazakhstan's leading airline – JSC Air Astana.
In the first half of 2024, the company's revenue amounted to $586.2 million, which is 12.9% higher compared to $519.1 million in the first half of 2023.
JSC Air Astana has a sole executive body in the form of Peter Foster, who has been leading the company since 2005 to the present day.
Notably, prior to this - from 2002 to 2005, Peter Foster held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the airline Royal Brunei Airlines, and earlier he led the rehabilitation group of the airline Philippine Airlines Inc.
In 2020, Peter Foster received a remuneration of more than 288 million tenge, in 2021 this amount was about 309 million tenge, in 2022 – over 394 million tenge, and in 2023 – about 405 million tenge.
Thus, over four years, Peter Foster received a total of about 1.4 billion tenge.
Let us recall that in February of this year, journalist Denis Krivosheev stated, that the Air Astana company serves exclusively the interests of Peter Foster and his circle.
Furthermore, the company has frequently been involved in scandals recently. Last year, JSC Air Astana came under suspicion of abusing its dominant position, for which it subsequently received a fine amounting to more than 876 million tenge.
During the inspection, it was established that in cases where customers bought tickets on the day of departure or for the nearest days, the airline unreasonably withheld a fuel surcharge from all passengers.
In April of this year, following an unscheduled inspection, Air Astana was held administratively liable due to non-compliance with information security requirements.
In addition, the company often becomes a target for criticism due to flight delays. In July of this year, First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar explained the periodic delay of Air Astana flights by the lack of a sufficient number of spare aircraft.
Not long ago, the airline's flight attendants sent an appeal addressed to the President, in which they outlined problems at Air Astana, namely, low salaries and an "inflated workforce".
Later, Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev stated that the problems mentioned in the appeal do not correspond to reality, but an audit commission was nevertheless created.
At the same time, Deputy Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee Darkhan Katyshev reported that the company has enough aircraft, and the delays can be explained by their excessive workload during the summer period.
It is worth noting that discussions about the activities of JSC Air Astana have become particularly frequent recently, which suggests that a negative opinion of the company is being artificially created, and the goals of this information attack may become clear in the near future.
To be continued…