Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) has once more deferred deliveries of the three B787-8s it has on order from Boeing (BOE, Washington National).

Air Astana finalised the deal with Boeing in 2011 with the acquisition to be done via finance leasing. The first of the jets were originally planned to arrive in 2017. However, in 2014, they were delayed until 2019 citing depressed demand brought on by a weak Kazakh tenge. Then, last year, government again stated that the aircraft would now only arrive in 2021.

Now, according to the carrier's FY2018 financial statements, the widebody jets will now only arrive in 2023 with the last pre-delivery payments also deferred.

CEO Peter Foster has previously said the B787 purchase is contingent on Air Astana being able to develop Kazakhstan into a connecting hub leveraging its ideal position between East and West.

At present, Air Astana's widebody fleet consists of three B767-300(ER)s all of which average around 5.5 years of age. They are currently used on trunk domestic Kazakh flights connecting Almaty International with Aktobe and Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev as well as destinations in Azerbaijan, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.