Air Astra

Is Air Astra safe?

Air Astra has no accident on record, flies only the current ATR 72-600 and has passed an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, which is a good start for an airline that only began flying in November 2022. We score it 72, ahead of Biman Bangladesh (68) and NovoAir (66). The reason it is not higher is time. Under four years on three to six turboprops is too short a record to prove much, and the airline works under a regulator that the FAA rates Category 2FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary and that publishes few reports.

A young airline with a clean start

Astra Airways was registered in July 2021. The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh approved its continuing airworthiness organisation on 30 September 2022 and issued its air operator certificate on 2 November 2022. According to the airline, that was the first new passenger certificate in Bangladesh in almost nine years. The first flight, from Dhaka to Cox's Bazar, left on 24 November 2022.

Since then the Aviation Safety Network has recorded no accident for Air Astra. That counts, but the sample is small. For comparison, Akasa Air in India has flown for a similar time with 20 to 40 jets and scores 88 on its accident record. Air Astra has had a fraction of those flights, so we score its accident record 86.

The fleet: one type, all current

Air Astra flies only the ATR 72-600 with 70 seats, the version of the turboprop that ATR still builds, with a glass cockpit. On 1 October 2026 the airline said it had six. Three arrived in just over three months, the latest with Pratt & Whitney's newer PW127XT engines. One type means one set of pilot ratings and spare parts, which helps a small airline.

The airline does not publish the age of its first aircraft, so we score the fleet 78, not in the 90s that we give to airlines with factory-new fleets of known age. That will change in 2027. Air Astra says it has started bringing in narrowbody jets, and in January 2026 it told the TBS it expected to lease new aircraft in the first half of the year. The first international flights are planned for the first quarter of 2027, to destinations such as Nepal, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore. That will be a new step for a crew and maintenance base that has only known turboprops.

Incidents: little on record

The public incident list is short. On 2 August 2025 flight 2A-450 was accelerating for take-off at Cox's Bazar when it hit a dog on the runway at about 120 knots. The crew rejected the take-off, the ATR stopped safely and an inspection found no damage. On 5 July 2026 a Dhaka to Chattogram flight with 70 passengers returned to Dhaka when one engine developed a fault two to three minutes after take-off. It landed safely, and no cause for the fault was published.

Neither event points to a crew error, though no cause for the engine fault has been published. Bangladesh's regulator also publishes few reports, so a short list is partly a gap in reporting. We score incidents 55, the same as US-Bangla.

Regulator and audits

The FAA's April 2025 list rates Bangladesh Category 2FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, which means the FAA found that the regulator does not meet ICAO standards. Bangladesh is not on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. Air Astra is an IATA member, and membership requires an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit every two years. That puts it level with Biman and US-Bangla at 60, and five points above NovoAir, which is not a member.

One detail for passengers: in 2026 Air Astra wet-leased an ATR 72-600 from US-Bangla, according to ch-aviation. On that aircraft US-Bangla's crew operates the flight under US-Bangla's certificate.

Flying Air Astra: what to consider

• Expect weather holds in the monsoon. From June to September, thunderstorms over Dhaka and Chattogram cause holds and diversions. With a turboprop, a delay in heavy rain is normal.
• Cox's Bazar and Saidpur are the tighter airports. Saidpur has a 1,829-metre runway. Animals on the runway have stopped flights at Cox's Bazar before, and a rejected take-off like the one in 2025 is a trained manoeuvre.
• Watch the first international flights. When Air Astra starts flying jets abroad in 2027, it will add a new aircraft type and new airports. Check our page for an update after the launch.

How we scored it

The accident record (86) and a single, current type of aircraft (fleet 78) carry the score. Oversight (60) reflects IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary under a Category 2FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary regulator. Incidents (55) and the environment (55) are middling, and the thin public data keeps incidents from scoring higher.