Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) is set to re-register all of its Aruba-registered aircraft in Ireland over the remainder of 2021 after the Irish and Kazakh civil aviation authorities (CAAs) signed a formal partnership agreement.

"This marks the start of an important relationship for Ireland and Kazakhstan," Irish Aviation Regulator Diarmuid Ó Conghaile said. "The ICAO Article 83 bis agreement provides for aircraft operated in one country to be registered on the register of another country, subject to a formal international agreement between the two States and lodged with ICAO, the UN body responsible for global aviation standards. We have now taken this step with Kazakhstan, and a number of aircraft operated by the Kazakh national carrier, Air Astana, will be transferred to the Irish register over the course of the summer and the remainder of this year."

The Irish CAA will review and issue certificates of airworthiness to the aircraft, while its Kazakh counterpart will retain the responsibility for other aspects of regulatory oversight. The agreement also covers technical support and training of Kazakh officials by the Irish.

"We cannot give an actual timeline of which aircraft goes when, but broadly, the entire fleet over time will migrate there," Air Astana's spokesperson told ch-aviation.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline currently operates nine A320-200s, six A320-200Ns, two A321-200s, four A321-200Ns, five A321-200NXs, three B767-300ERs, and five E190-E2s, all of which are registered in Aruba and sport P4-registrations.

The agreement does not cover the re-registration of aircraft currently registered in Kazakhstan by other carriers. All five DHC-8-Q400s operated by Qazaq Air (IQ, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev) and both DHC-8-Q300s operated by Prime Aviation (PKZ, Almaty International) are also registered in Aruba, while the remainder of aircraft operated by other Kazakh carriers are locally-registered.