SEOUL, KOREA - Korea's Asiana Airlines said on June 20 that it has signed a comprehensive agreement to expand cooperation with Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan. Under the terms of the pact, the two air carriers will switch to the more advanced free flow codeshare from the current block space codeshare. 

 

Kim Su-cheon, president of Asiana Airlines, met his Kazakh counterpart Peter Foster, Air Astana president, in the Kazakh capital of Astana on the 19th and signed the agreement.

 

The block space code-sharing allows sharing of a certain agreed number of flight seats between two airlines. In contrast, the free flow code-sharing permits sharing of all available seats between two passenger airliners. Air Astana and Asiana Airlines will in the future strengthen ties in the areas of in-flight services, ground handling services, information technology, and reservation and ticketing. 

 

Asiana Airlines president Kim said, "As we can share information on real-time flight reservation status with each other, we will be able to offer better services to passengers flying between Korea and Kazakhstan. We hope to make more contributions to improving the bilateral relationship by encouraging two-way interactions."

 

Since inaugurating the first flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan, in January 1998, Asiana Airlines has operated twice-a-week flights to the Central Asian nation's largest city from Incheon.