UPRT 2.0 at Air Astana: Advanced Back-to-Basics

By Dr. Sunjoo Advani & Captain Filippos Siakkas

During the first week of October 2023, Air Astana launched its new Upset Prevention & Recovery Training program: UPRT 2.0.

The national flag carrier of Kazakhstan has adapted its previous compliance-based UPRT program to one that aims to also enhance pilot manual handling skills far more deeply.

“We are sure this training will make our pilots better in many ways. They will gain a better understanding of how to safely manage the airplane under all situations, both day-to-day, and in extremely unlikely upsets or stalls,” says Captain Filippos Siakkas, COO of Air Astana.

The carrier operates a fleet of Airbus A320-family airplanes, Boeing 767s and Embraer 190 E2 jets.

“Some of our operations require our pilots to fly in high-altitude regimes for extended periods of time. Understanding the airplane capabilities and limitations is crucial,” continues Capt. Siakkas. “We take UPRT extremely seriously at Air Astana, and we look far beyond pure compliance. We know from experience that it is the flight crew, and only the flight crew, who will save the day when things go not as expected.”

The A320 portion of the UPRT training was conducted in the new Air Astana full flight simulator, delivered this year by L3Harris.

“The training provided to us by International Development of Technology can be summarized as Advanced… Back-to-Basics,” according to Captain Siakkas. “Several of the exercises, as well as the ground-school training, were complete eye-openers for our senior instructors - and really enjoyable at the same time.”

Air Astana will roll out the new UPRT training module-by-module to all its pilots during the course of the coming years.