Russia - Booking a flight with Gomelavia in Belarus

Hello There,

I will be in Minsk next week and I thought it would be a great idea to get some rare russian birds in Belarus.

I checked websites and found out that Gomelavia is operating twice a week on an AN24 from the old city airport "Minsk 1" to Gomel. Rates are as low as 45000 BYR, which are about 12 EUR/15 USD.

The website shows a flight departing around 2 pm, while the Minsk 1 airport website shows an evening flight, but I guess the airline schedule should be more accurate.

I tried to purchase tickets by sending emails to the airline directly, as well as to several belarus travel agencies that they work with, but noboday dare to reply... Anyway, I will now go there Wednesday and show up at the airport to buy a ticket...

While anywhere in the world this would be no problem as long as there is space, I wonder if in Belarus I will be fine...

Therefore my questions:
-Did anyone flew Gomelavia before, what to expect?
-How have you purchased the ticket?
-Since they're expecting around -20°C next Wednesday, is this temperatures where flights usually operate in those kind of countries? not sure if they deice

And last but not least:
Are there any other domestic flights that I have missed? I don't want to fly international, since I only have a single entry belarus visa and flying to another CIS country would in most cases require a visa from the other country as well...

I am hoping that moving this thread to the FT Russia Forum will be productive.
Good Luck....
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Looks like my idea of flying domestic belarus flights just went away.

I FINALLY received a mail from Gomelavia:

"The information on flight performance

16FEB11
GOM216
MINSK 1 - GOMEL
14:30-15:25 will be known not earlier than tomorrow's morning. Probably flight may be transferred for tomorrow (15 FEB 11)

The space is always available. The ticket price is 46 510 belorussion rub.(12 EUR).
The ticket can be paid at the airport in Minsk before the flight."


Absolutely incredible. Basically they will be able to tell me tomorrow morning, if the flight I am supposed to take in 2 days will not take place tomorrow noon instead...

To be honest I'd be hard pressed to think of any Belarusians actually taking internal flights - I half suspect Gomelavia actually lay them on when there is demand, practically a charter operation!

The trains from Minsk to Gomel are frequent throughout the day and take 4-5 hours, and once you take into account transfer time, check in time and flying time, may be not even that much longer city centre to city centre than flying! Intercity buses might be a bit cheaper than trains but possibly a bit more cramped. I've tended to criss-cross Belarus more by train than bus!

To be honest I'd be hard pressed to think of any Belarusians actually taking internal flights - I half suspect Gomelavia actually lay them on when there is demand, practically a charter operation!

The trains from Minsk to Gomel are frequent throughout the day and take 4-5 hours, and once you take into account transfer time, check in time and flying time, may be not even that much longer city centre to city centre than flying! Intercity buses might be a bit cheaper than trains but possibly a bit more cramped. I've tended to criss-cross Belarus more by train than bus!

I second bcmatt. Forget the planes - Belarus is too small of a country to worry about air travel. I traveled both by bus and train. Both were very affordable with train being more comfortable. Most buses are older minivans that could be really rickety and cramped.

Train to Gomel takes 4-5 hours and there are up to 18 trains a day.
If you read Russian, check Belarus train schedule here: http://www.brestrw.by/trains1/selStations4MapAction.do?shed_type=pass
Otherwise, good old Deutsche Bahn has the schedule in English: [/B][/B]http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?ld=9646&seqnr=3&ident=df.0848946.1297834334&rt=1&newrequest=yes&HWAI=~QUERY;~JS;~CONNECTION;~GLOBALAPPLICATION;&