How do you get 7,000 people to start thinking global as well as local?

As Kazakhstan’s leading carrier, Air Astana has served the skies of Central Asia for over two decades. It has won the Skytrax award for best airline in the region for 14 consecutive years, setting the benchmark for safety and service along the way. And with low-cost sister carrier FlyArystan now on board, the airline has expanded its fleet to 63 aircraft – giving the airline plenty of runway for growth.

While Kazakhstan remains an underpenetrated aviation market with significant long-term growth potential, increasing competition from both international and local airlines means that remaining purely a regional carrier is no longer enough. So, in December 2024, Air Astana launched its ‘Going Global’ strategy – with the goal of transitioning from a leading regional player into a world-class aviation brand.

The tricky part? The sheer scale of the shift. The airline has more than 7,000 colleagues – from pilots and cabin crew to ground staff – spread across multiple countries, with 1,000 new joiners each year to keep pace with its growth ambitions. Air Astana needed to explain clearly why ‘Going Global’ was essential, not optional, and get people genuinely excited about it. That meant painting a picture of both change and continuity – inspiring fresh thinking and new ways of working, while staying true to the fundamentals: safety, service standards, governance, commercial discipline, and Air Astana’s HEART values.

We’ve been Air Astana’s trusted internal communications partner for nine years. We know their people, and we know that pushing a new mindset from the top down simply wouldn’t work. To get real buy-in, the change had to feel personal.

So, we helped Air Astana to shape and deliver a 12-month, four-phase communications and engagement programme – designed to be refreshed and built on each year:

• The first job was to align. We interviewed 14 senior people to build a clear picture of what Going Global meant to them, then dug into those insights during a two-day Senior Leadership Team workshop. We also delivered communications training to help leaders show up as the inspiring, credible voices their teams needed them to be.
• The next challenge was to equip managers to communicate the strategy and become genuine change ambassadors. Air Astana’s HR team ran a series of dedicated line manager forums, while we put together a strategic narrative and messaging framework – the foundation for a cascade toolkit designed to help managers have real, meaningful conversations about the strategy with their teams.
• From there, HR ran a series of campaigns to engage colleagues by getting them involved, talking, and thinking creatively. Highlights included an ideas campaign that invited everyone to contribute their operational thinking, and a ‘Big Conversation’ about strengthening Air Astana’s culture.
• The final piece was to sustain the momentum. Internal teams took the reins on regular content across key channels – the KC App, ‘On Air’ magazine, Instagram, and departmental forums – making sure Going Global stayed top of mind, not just a one-off message.

• Colleagues submitted a mammoth 554 fresh ideas across all departments.
• Their Gallup engagement score jumped to 4.2 out of 5 – the highest colleague score since the airline started measuring in 2016.
• Overall employee engagement surged by 10 points to hit a solid 60%.
• And scores for “At work, my opinions seem to count” and “The mission makes me feel my job is important” saw brilliant uplifts.
• It has even won two awards: Employee Engagement or Internal Communications at the PRCA Dare Awards, and Best Internal Communications by Sector: Transport and Logistics at the Internal Communications and Engagement Awards.