Air Astana has announced that it will begin flying between Almaty International Airport (ALA) and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) at the end of March 2026. The new route adds another Chinese city to the Kazakh flag carrier’s network, as it continues building out connections to its eastern neighbor.
The new service will operate three times weekly using Airbus A321LR aircraft, with flights scheduled on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, departing Almaty at 19:10 local time and arriving in Shanghai at 04:25 local time the following day.
Return flights will run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving Shanghai at 05:40 local time and touching down in Almaty at 10:15 local time. Block time for the westbound leg runs 6 hours and 15 minutes.
The Shanghai route will expand Air Astana’s existing China footprint, which includes flights to Beijing, Guangzhou, Sanya and Urumqi. The airline first began serving Chinese destinations from Kazakhstan more than 20 years ago, establishing itself as one of the primary carriers linking Central Asia to China’s major cities.
The A321LR, Airbus’s long-range variant of its popular single-aisle narrowbody, offers sufficient range to cover the roughly 3,200-kilometer distance between Almaty and Shanghai, while also providing flexibility in cabin configuration. Air Astana operates the type on several routes within its network that require extended range but which cannot justify widebody economics.