This Kazakh airline’s new plane looks like a snow leopard

A new plane owned by a Kazakh airline is grabbing attention with its unusual look, while raising awareness about an important cause.

Air Astana’s new plane is painted to look like a snow leopard. In addition to being eye-catching, the paint job is designed to attract attention to the animal, which is native to Kazakhstan and a vulnerable species that has suffered from loss of habitat and poaching. The E190-E2 aircraft comes courtesy of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, which has been grabbing attention by painting planes to look like animals, including one that looks like a shark.

“Air Astana is pleased to add the E190-E2 aircraft to our growing fleet… (the) aircraft will provide additional benefits as well as significantly improve our passenger experience,” said Peter Foster, president and CEO of Air Astana in a statement. One feature that is sure to appeal to travellers is the interiors, which have no middle seats.

Air Astana has also announced its plans to launch a new low-cost airline in the first half of 2019, called FlyArystan. The company says that the new low-cost airline will offer flights for half of what Air Astana does, on mostly domestic routes. Foster said following that announcement: “FlyArystan is the result of much serious thought and internal business planning, and comes as a result of a rapidly changing local and regional airline business environment. It will be good for the mid to long-term prospects of Air Astana, and we hope, very welcome to the Kazakhstan travelling public, who will be able to benefit from significantly cheaper airfares on domestic and regional routes”.

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