Hello and welcome to another video thanks for joining me I am in Baku the capital of
Azerbaijan I'm Paul Lucas and today I'm flying Azerbaijan Airlines in economy
class on their Boeing 767 I'm off to Istanbul come join me Baku Airport has to
be one of the most unique pieces of architecture you can pass through as an airline passenger both terminals are equally distinctive and different from
one another. Today I'm travelling from Terminal 1, which is where Azerbaijan's international
departures are handled. The unique design continues inside. It's a really interesting
and unusual space. This airport is quite unlike any other I've been to
Check-in for Azerbaijan Airlines is on the ground floor. There are some check-in kiosks
where you can bring your boarding pass, but if you do have checked baggage like I do today
you'll still need to drop off your bags at the manned check-in counters. If you don't have lounge access and you're still looking for something to eat or drink landside
there's McDonald's and a proper coffee shop which are located on the mezzanine level. Passport control and the departures level is located upstairs on the first floor
Again, the unique design continues here. All of the spaces are broken up with these weird half-shell pod things
They contain everything from cafes to children's play areas and there are also some sleeping pods which I noticed
I wonder how often they get used. I'm not sure how many people actually connect here in Baku
There are several business class lounges upstairs on the top floor of the airport
Now as I've got an economy ticket I'm not able to get into Azerbaijan Airlines business class lounge
But there is a priority pass lounge and I'm using my priority pass card to access it today
In contrast to the rest of the airport, which left a massively positive impression on me
this lounge is rather underwhelming. Nonetheless, you're able to get a half-decent breakfast here and a cup of tea if you want
With about 40 minutes to go until departure, it's nearly time to board, and time to head to the gate
This is our aircraft today, a Boeing 767-300 of Azerbaijan Airlines. This is a wonderful livery, by the way. I love Azerbaijan's blue colour scheme
Let me know what you think of the livery in the comments below. Also on the apron is an Embraer of Buter Airways, which is the low-cost subsidiary of Azerbaijan
Airlines which serves domestic and secondary international destinations Shortly it time to board And for those of you who are new to this channel I recommend that you follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I give live updates on all of my trips
Economy class on this Azerbaijan 767 is in a 232 configuration. I've always liked the 767 because airlines aren't particularly tempted to cram more seats into the back than it can otherwise withstand
If you're travelling on this aircraft, you may want to avoid the last rows on the window sides
There is no window here. The width of the seat is perfectly fine and the legroom is pretty generous too
I'm not sure why all this fabric hangs down from the seat pocket. There's a good six inches between my knees and the actual seat
Shortly before takeoff, the cabin crew pass through the cabin and hand out some boiled sweets
This used to be a pre-flight habit back when I was a child, but the practice seems to have
almost died out amongst mainstream airlines now. Thank you
Today route will see us cover the 1 miles to Istanbul at 36 feet and it will take us around 2 hours and 20 minutes The 767 is an older aircraft so it always positive to see USB charging points that have
been retroactively installed on them and yes they do work. Let's take a quick look at the
in-flight entertainment on board. There is of course a moving map and flight detail screen
and there's also a selection of TV and films to watch. I think it's important to remember that the
main market for this flight is people from Turkey and Azerbaijan connecting between those two
countries. For the Western viewer, there isn't really a great deal to whet the appetite in terms
of TV or film. Overall, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the condition and quality of the
cabin. They even have individual air vents above the seats. Now that's something that doesn't
actually come as standard on new build aircraft, would you believe? One of the great highlights of
flying this route is that it travels directly over some of the Caucasus mountain range
This remote and inhospitable region is utterly spectacular from the air. It's a real treat to be travelling over these for over half an hour
One of the drawbacks of travelling over such bounteous terrain is there is occasional turbulence
but in my view, no pain, no gain. About an hour after take-off, breakfast was served by the crew
Now, I'd already had a small breakfast in the lounge before I departed, because I had read some rather negative reviews of Azerbaijan's catering
Overall, I thought this was pretty nicely presented. and I really love the 50s feel that that lovely blue tray gives to the whole setup
Again, I think it's important to remember there aren't going to be many Western Europeans on board a flight like this
and therefore the catering isn't done towards our sensibilities and preferences. However, I was keen to see what was under the foil, and to be honest, it's not good
As far as I can tell, this is some sort of poultry sausage, baked beans, which were the size of butter beans, and a very strange cheese and potato bake
The most diplomatic thing I could say about this breakfast is, it just wasn't for me
The meal service concluded with a cup of coffee, which is served along with some sweets and some packaged nuts
The coffee wasn't bad at all, and I have to say the crew on board this flight were pretty good
They were smiling and friendly, and approachable, and had no problems at all with only speaking English
Azerbaijan Airlines also has its own in-flight magazine, and this one was particularly interesting for me to read
Firstly I was quite surprised at the extent of their route network which you can see here on this map One place I really like to fly with them is New York They use their 787 Dreamliner on this route and the fares can be pretty cheap
from New York to Baku. Most of the tourist-oriented articles are written in English and this is a
particularly interesting one about Azerbaijan's largest national park. I guess the articles that
are written only in Azerbaijani have a more local relevance only. Soon we're descending into the
Istanbul area. Now, Istanbul is a vast metropolis, around three times the size of London, and this
is something that you often can't appreciate until you view the city from the air. I was excited to
catch a glimpse of Heyda Passat station, which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. From here, the
historic and evocative Trans-Asia Express used to serve Tehran in Iran. Unfortunately, that service
is no longer and the station has currently closed renovations. So, to sum up, I really enjoyed my flight with Azerbaijan Airlines
Sure, the food wasn't too great, and the aircraft is an older one, but there's always a tremendous novelty in flying one of these unusual carriers
This flight cost me £105 one way. That's around €120. The value isn't too bad considering there aren't many carriers competing on this route
and of course you still get a breakfast, even in economy class
Now that's an aspect of service which has pretty much died out among most European airlines
and the ones in North America too. I'll wrap things up here
Please leave a comment below, especially if you like the video, give me a thumbs up and
please do consider subscribing to the channel for more content just like this
For now, thanks for watching and safe flying