Background
Turkmenistan Airlines just made news recently. In early February, it was banned from EU airspace, and the UK followed suit. So I feel fortunate that I managed to get to try this enigmatic, and elusive airline just recently prior to the ban and transitted through a little-visited country.
I have been eyeing Turkmenistan Airlines for years on my occasional trips between India and Europe. But it’s proven to be elusive. Until very recently, it was not bookable with online agents and it still doesn’t have a global website to book online from. To make a booking, I had to email their office in Delhi, and the flights were always full since they only fly to Delhi once per week on Saturdays and my work trips were confirmed only a week or two in advance and seats are usually sold out at such short notice. A few times I dropped by their office in Connaught Place, an old-school airline ticketing office from another era. A few times, the staff even told me to book Air India when I was insisting to waitlist myself on their flights. They were bewildered why I wanted to fly via Ashgabat and not flew direct to Europe with Air India for the same price or cheaper.
Late last year, I managed to fix a work trip a month in advance and seats were still available on Turkmenistan which I discovered by chance on Skyscanner as they recently uploaded their availability into the GDS. They offered the cheapest business class fares between India and Europe at INR50,000 (usd700) and I snapped it.
So this became the most anticipated trip of the year to end 2018.
Part 1:
Flight: T5 536
Aircraft: 737-800NG (not a MAX although it was so new that I thought it was)
Reg: EZ-A019
Seat: 3D
Class: Business Class
Load: 50%
On a cold Saturday morning in mid December, I arrived at Delhi Terminal 3 for the flight I had been waiting for for years.
Unlike the usual business crowd on a weekday, Saturday morning is usually an interesting time when Delhi has flights to places like Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the likes and today’s security queue is quite a curious sight to me since I have been fascinated by Central Asia since a long time. These people look like they come from another world, another era.
Turkmenistan Airlines opened a few counters for its single weekly flight. Passengers seem to be mostly Turkmen in origin. They are quite recognisable with their tall colourful head dress.
Business class has its own counter, and this is where I spent the next 10 minutes being scrutinised about my unconventional route to Europe. As usual, check-in agents in India don’t quite believe that Singaporeans do not need visas to enter the UK and I had to point out the many UK passport stamps I had in my passport to prove. He also seemed surprised that I bought the ticket online. I figure it must be just recently that T5 started selling tickets in the common GDS. I bought mine at cleartrip.com
Warning notice is in English and Russian although there is also a Turkmen headline on the top right. The interesting I noted here was the coconut. Coconut? Really? Forbidden? Why? May be their President doesn’t like coconuts ?
My boarding passes were soon printed and it was then smooth sailing through a quiet passport control and security line.
To my disappointment, Turkmenistan Airlines does not offer lounge access to business class passengers in Delhi, so I headed straight to the Gate, 1 hour before departure.
It was a long walk and I was trailing behind these Turkmen ladies with beautiful and colourful head dresses.
Delhi’s waiting area is actually very pleasant and spacious. It’s definitely better to wait here than in the windowless low-ceilinged SilverKris Lounge on Friday evenings.
I had my first peek of the elusive airliner, green-liveried Turkmenistan Airlines, which just arrived from a red-eye sector from Ashgabat.
Boarding was on time and on boarding, I had better glimpse of the airliner. It’s a 737-800NG. Yes, and I didn’t expect they have such a brand-new aircraft. I knew it was going to be a 737-800 but I thought it’s going to be one of those older models which Jet Airways fly. I didn’t have high expectation. This plane is 2 years old or so.
Turkmenistan Airlines just made news recently. In early February, it was banned from EU airspace, and the UK followed suit. So I feel fortunate that I managed to get to try this enigmatic, and elusive airline just recently prior to the ban and transitted through a little-visited country.
I have been eyeing Turkmenistan Airlines for years on my occasional trips between India and Europe. But it’s proven to be elusive. Until very recently, it was not bookable with online agents and it still doesn’t have a global website to book online from. To make a booking, I had to email their office in Delhi, and the flights were always full since they only fly to Delhi once per week on Saturdays and my work trips were confirmed only a week or two in advance and seats are usually sold out at such short notice. A few times I dropped by their office in Connaught Place, an old-school airline ticketing office from another era. A few times, the staff even told me to book Air India when I was insisting to waitlist myself on their flights. They were bewildered why I wanted to fly via Ashgabat and not flew direct to Europe with Air India for the same price or cheaper.
Late last year, I managed to fix a work trip a month in advance and seats were still available on Turkmenistan which I discovered by chance on Skyscanner as they recently uploaded their availability into the GDS. They offered the cheapest business class fares between India and Europe at INR50,000 (usd700) and I snapped it.
So this became the most anticipated trip of the year to end 2018.
Part 1:
Flight: T5 536
Aircraft: 737-800NG (not a MAX although it was so new that I thought it was)
Reg: EZ-A019
Seat: 3D
Class: Business Class
Load: 50%
On a cold Saturday morning in mid December, I arrived at Delhi Terminal 3 for the flight I had been waiting for for years.
Unlike the usual business crowd on a weekday, Saturday morning is usually an interesting time when Delhi has flights to places like Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the likes and today’s security queue is quite a curious sight to me since I have been fascinated by Central Asia since a long time. These people look like they come from another world, another era.
Turkmenistan Airlines opened a few counters for its single weekly flight. Passengers seem to be mostly Turkmen in origin. They are quite recognisable with their tall colourful head dress.
Business class has its own counter, and this is where I spent the next 10 minutes being scrutinised about my unconventional route to Europe. As usual, check-in agents in India don’t quite believe that Singaporeans do not need visas to enter the UK and I had to point out the many UK passport stamps I had in my passport to prove. He also seemed surprised that I bought the ticket online. I figure it must be just recently that T5 started selling tickets in the common GDS. I bought mine at cleartrip.com
Warning notice is in English and Russian although there is also a Turkmen headline on the top right. The interesting I noted here was the coconut. Coconut? Really? Forbidden? Why? May be their President doesn’t like coconuts ?
My boarding passes were soon printed and it was then smooth sailing through a quiet passport control and security line.
To my disappointment, Turkmenistan Airlines does not offer lounge access to business class passengers in Delhi, so I headed straight to the Gate, 1 hour before departure.
It was a long walk and I was trailing behind these Turkmen ladies with beautiful and colourful head dresses.
Delhi’s waiting area is actually very pleasant and spacious. It’s definitely better to wait here than in the windowless low-ceilinged SilverKris Lounge on Friday evenings.
I had my first peek of the elusive airliner, green-liveried Turkmenistan Airlines, which just arrived from a red-eye sector from Ashgabat.
Boarding was on time and on boarding, I had better glimpse of the airliner. It’s a 737-800NG. Yes, and I didn’t expect they have such a brand-new aircraft. I knew it was going to be a 737-800 but I thought it’s going to be one of those older models which Jet Airways fly. I didn’t have high expectation. This plane is 2 years old or so.
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