Arnur

It has been a while since my last trip report and I know that some of you enjoy reading about lesser known airlines and out-of-the-way destinations. So I though I should share this trip with you:

FRI 12DEC COLOGNE - AMSTERDAM 0645 0805 KL 1804 F50
FRI 12DEC AMSTERDAM - NAIROBI 1020 2025 KL 565 B777
MON 15DEC NAIROBI - JUBA 1000 1145 J0 831 CRJ
WED 17DEC JUBA - NAIROBI 1215 1400 J0 832 F28
THU 18DEC NAIROBI - ZANZIBAR 1230 1345 KQ 492 B737
SUN 21DEC ZANZIBAR - DAR ES SALAM 2040 2100 PW 714 ATR72
SUN 21DEC DAR ES SALAM - AMSTERDAM 2345 0715 KL 567 B777
MON 22DEC AMSTERDAM - COLOGNE KL 1807 0920 1015

This was a combination of a business trip (to Kenya and South Sudan) with a few days of vaccation tagged on at the end (on Zanzibar). I booked a total of three tickets (from Germany to Nairobi, back from Zanzibar on KLM and Precision Air/PW), a separate ticket on Jetlink Express (J0) from Kenya to South Sudan and finally an award ticket on Kenya Airways on the sector from Nairobi to Zanzibar.

Arnur

FRI 12DEC COLOGNE - AMSTERDAM 0645 0805 KL 1804 F50 Seat 11F

I have taken this flight (usually connecting to the Nairobi service) more times than I care to remember. I took a taxi from my flat in Bonn to the airport at 0530, arriving a few minutes to six at the KL check-in counter in Terminal 2. There was nobody waiting at the two open counters, so I checked my bag swiftly all the way to Nairobi. I had used OLCI the night before, but the SWISSPORT agent insisted on printing new boarding passes for me. I have yet to figure out why they do this, in particular since they don´t do it all the time. The wait at security was also only brief, even though the airport was fairly busy at this early hour.

Unfortunately, the Airport Business Lounge (which is the contract lounge for KL and all other carriers operating out of Terminal 2) opens only at 0600 on weekdays and since boarding was scheduled to start at 0605, there was little point in waiting for it to open. So I went to Cafeteiro, a coffee bar near the KL gate, to grab a coffee and a sandwitch. My pet peeve about the Cityhopper flight to Amsterdam is the fact that they don´t provide anything but OJ and cookies. Since I need my coffee fix in the morning, this is not quite sufficient for me.. KL started to call boarding just when I was finishing my breakfast and I went down the stairs for the bus gate.

This morning´s flight was about half-full, so boarding went quickly. I picked up a newspaper and settled into seat 11F. A side-note: I have been "upgraded" several times on this flight and "business class" on this service gets you precisely the same seat and service as economy class. I don´t really see the point about this and would be seriously unhappy had I paid for a premium ticket. With nobody sitting next to me, I had a pleasant flight to Amsterday, arriving and departing on time. Service consisted, you guessed it, of a small container of OJ and some pre-packed cookies. The only notable issue was the fact that I was handed a survey form by the flight attendant, asking about the check-in and flight experience. I did mention the lack of lounge access and the meagre service offerings.. I also wish they would upgrade this service to somewhat more modern equipment (the F50 fleet is showing it´s age), but I think the chance for that is remote in the near future..

To be continued..

HedgeFundFlyer

Especially looking forward to hearing about Juba, can't wait.

Arnur

FRI 12DEC AMSTERDAM - NAIROBI 1020 2025 KL 565 B777 Seat 5D

After clearing immigration at Amsterdam, I went straight to the refurbished Crown Lounge in the non-Schengen section of the terminal. This was my first visit to the new facility and I was quite impressed. I certainly felt more spacious than the old lounge. After a quick stop at the coffee machine, I went to work on an assignment for the office, using the free wireless available. About 45 minutes before the scheduled departure, I went down to the F gates for the final security check and for boarding.

I quite like the fact that there is a separate line for premium passengers at the gates. The normal line was very long and stretched all the way down to the next gate. After a wait of maybe ten minutes I cleared security and heard my name being paged. When I had bought the ticket two weeks back, I had already noted that the cheaper booking classes were sold out and I ended up with a B-fare. Secretly, I had been hoping for an operational upgrade since the combination of a full plane, high FF status and an expensive ticket is usually a winning combination on AF/KL. And indeed, when the gate agent put my boarding pass through the reader, there was the PING! sound. She announced that there was a seat change and wrote the new seat number 5D on the boarding pass. Needless to say, she just made my day with this operational upgrade The plane left completely full in both classes and I think there was one other upgraded passenger in the front cabin.

Unlike some other people here, I don´t mind the new business class seats on KL and in the past have also been quite happy with the catering. And I absolutely love the IFE system on most of the long-range fleet with an enormous choice of movies. I recently took CO for a number of flights to North and South America and by the time I was flying back from Bogóta, I was already running out of movies I wanted to see (and that was before crossing the Atlantic again), so I really appreciate the choice. Obviously, the selection of movies would have been similar in coach, but the larger screen made viewing more pleasant.

In December 2008, the signature chef was Sergio Herman of the Oud Sluis restaurant in Sluis and the wine selection featured a number of Dutch wines (in addition to South African, South American, French and German ones). Here is the menu for the flight to Nairobi:

Appetiser

Crab Tartlet
Presented with curry avocado quacamole, citrus jelly and sourdough crisps
Cucumber and coriander soup will complete this appetiser

Wine: De Kleine Schorre 2007

Main Courses

Slow-cooked breast of chicken
Enhanced by tarragon gravy, potatoes fondant and purée of green peas

or

Miso-glaced salmon
Offered with soya butter, fennel creme and cabbage

Wine: De Kleine Schorre 2007

or

Shredded beef
Served with truffle sauce, a basil and aruqula risotto and green asparagus

Wine: Terra Andino Altos 2007

Desert

We invite you to select your choice of a sweet dish, cheese or fresh fruit from our dessert trolley.

I had the Shredded Beef, which was quite tasty and sampled both the Kleine Schure white wine and the Terra Andina Altos Cabernet Sauvignon (as recommended by the menu). I was surprised about the quality of the Dutch wine, it is certainly an indicator of my ignorance, but I was completely unaware that there is any commercial wine production in The Netherlands. I know that many people here are rather critical of the KLM catering in business, but on the rare occassion that I get to try it, I have always been happy with the quality of the main courses. However, like others here, I feel that there could be a bit more choice with the appetisers. I liked the Crab tartlet, but I would not have minded something as simple and good as a decent, freshly tossed salad as an alternative.

Throughout the flight, the service was very attentive and I was always addressed by my name, even though the cabin was booked solid. The only minor slip was the fact that the flight attendant never came back to hang my jacket when I boarded, but he was very busy finding space for people´s luggage in the overhead compartments and I finally stowed it myself. Other than that, I could not fault the crew for friendliness and efficiency. I spent most of the flight chatting to my seat mate (a Kenyan working in New York City and returning to Nairobi for the holidays) and watching a number of movies, which I had missed on the big screen in the last months. All things considered, the time spent in flight went fast. The flight attendants also distributed Kenyan entry cards and visa forms during the flight, which helped to beat the crowds after arrival. About 90 minutes before departure, the cabin crew served a hot snack:

Appetiser

Smoked Chicken
Served with guacamole and fried cherry tomatoes

Hot Snacks

Harira
Traditional Moroccan stew of chicken and mixed vegetables

or

Couscous
Offered with tajin sauce, prunes, apricots, grapes, green cabbage, roasted almonds and mixed vegetables.

I had the couscous together with some more De Kleine Schorre wine. Again, I liked the meal and also the fact that KL tries to offers dishes from different parts of the world (I had some great Indonesian food in WBC a year ago on a flight to Tanzania), but I agree that some more choices would have been nice. Also, I feel that less seasoned travelers might prefer something a bit more run-of-the-mill than Harira or Couscous, such as a simple hot sandwich. My African seat mate certainly was not too impressed by the food choices.

Arrival in Nairobi was on-time, the flight attendants were blocking coach passengers from disembarking until WBC had done so and as a result I was among the first people to hit the passport line. Having bought my transit visa for 20 US$, I walked down to the baggage hall were my single suitcase was among the first to come onto the belt. This was not due to any priority stickers (it seems the SWISSPORT agents in Cologne forgot to attach those), but rather sheer luck as the wait for luggage in Nairobi can be quite long. I was out of the terminal less than 20 minutes after leaving the plane, which must be a personal record for me. A national holiday in Kenya meant little traffic on the road and I made it to my preferred hotel, the Fairview Garden Hotel in less than 25 minutes.

All things considered, this was an excellent flight. Scoring a rare operational upgrade certainly made my day, but the fact that KL brought back the B777 (and it´s superior IFE system) on this route means it´s a good choice for day-time flights for me in coach as well. Combined with Amsterdam as a transit hub, I´m quite happy with KL. Otherwise, my choices to East Africa are usually limited to Kenya Airways (via AMS, LHR or CDG), SWISS (via ZRH) and BA (via LHR) and here KL wins hands down.

To be continued..

Arnur

While a flight to NBO on KL (even in WBC) is fairly mundane, I think the next two sectors featuring Jetlink Express (J0) are a bit more exotic. I have been traveling to various destinations in Sudan since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government in Khartoum and the SPLA/M in 2005, but the vast majority of my trips have been between Nairobi and Juba. This city is the capital of autonomous South Sudan on the banks of the White Nile, with a population of some 180.000 people. During the war this was a government town and access (if at all possible) was usually by air from Khartoum, while the rest of South Sudan was served by humanitarian flights often operated by the World Food Program based in Lokichoggio (of Constant Gardener fame) in Northern Kenya.

All of this has changed in the last three year. Today, Juba is a booming development aid town with white UN and NGO 4x4s creating traffic jams on the single paved main road and Sushi being served in restaurants by the river. If you were in Kabul or Monrovia a few years back, you get the picture. For a long time, Juba was known for the worst possible accommodation (old army tents) for highest possible price (100 US$ plus per night) you have ever paid for camping in a dusty compound, so it was with a sense of trepidation that I left the relative luxury of my Kenyan hotel for this visit.

Things certainly have improved with regard to air transportation. Juba still has a daily flight to Khartoum, but several companies compete on the more popular routes to Entebbe (Uganda) and Nairobi. There is also a flight several times a week on Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Abeba, which would provide decent connections to Europe if my FF loyalty would not tie me to Skyteam (and by extension to flying KL or KQ to East Africa). Within South Sudan, there is a decent network of flights operated by the Humanitarian Air Service (HAS, operated by WFP with a hub in Rumbek) and the United Nations, while a number of fledgling South Sudanese carriers (such a South Sudan Air Connections or Password Aviation) provide a commercial alternative. Specialized charter outfits such as ALS or Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) account for the balance of services flown.

From Nairobi, my choices to Juba are East African Safari Express (operating a DC9) and Jetlink Express (operating either CRJ-100 or F28). There are also flights on a low-cost outfit called FLY540.com using turboprop equipment as well as some Sudanese carriers plying this route. While I have mostly flown East African in the past, I wanted to try out Jetlink Express this time for a change (and also because they serve Goma in the Eastern DRC, a destination I might be visiting in the next few weeks). I bought a ticket from our Nairobi based travel agent (Muthaiga Travel, highly recommended) at a steep price of some 700 US$ and received my electronic ticket by e-mail.

MON 15DEC NAIROBI - JUBA 1000 1145 J0 831 CRJ

I arrived at Jomo Kenyatta airport at about 0845 and went to check-in at the almost deserted terminal 1 (KQ, which accounts for the majority of flights out of Nairobi, uses terminal 2). A short line at the security check at the entrance and some three people in front of me at the Jetlink counter. This does not seem to be a busy flight, but the complicated check-in process (even though J0 issues electronic tickets, boarding passes and baggage labels are written manually) means a wait of some ten minutes before I can drop off my suitcase. The friendly check-in agent informs me that the flight would be delayed for about 90 minutes, information that is not available from the electronic departure boards throughout the terminal. But hey, this is Africa where time is measured differently, so a delay of 90 minutes is nothing to get excited about.

Having cleared Kenyan immigration, I´m heading to the Nairobi Java House (Kenya´s superb answer to Starbucks) at the far end of the international pier. This is when the power goes off in the airport and while the emergency generators kick-in a few seconds later, that is only sufficient for some of the terminal illuminations, while most of the shops and food outlets are covered in darkness. Nothing to be concerned about, but it means that my Café Latte is downgraded to the house blend as the there is no power for the fancy coffee machine. The best part of the Java House outlet at the airport is the fact that you can enjoy a great view of the apron from the big windows while sipping your pre-departure coffee. Nairobi usually offers an interesting mix of passenger and cargo airlines. This morning, I witnessed the sole Delta Connection (no relation to the US company) B737, which usually sits unemployed on the tarmac, being readied for a departure. Mid-morning is a quiet time for Jomo Kenyatta and I share the Java House only with a few bleary-eyed Western tourists, clearly in transit and waiting for the next wave of Kenya Airways departures to destinations such a Lusaka, Kigali and Zanzibar.

Power returns at about 1045 and CNN shows some footage of the fighting in the DRC. Content to be going to a nice and peaceful place such as South Sudan, I walk over to gate 4 where my flight will be boarding eventually. Walking over there, I notice that East African´s flight (which was also scheduled to depart at 1000) seems to have actually left on time and I briefly curse my curiosity. For the aviation buffs, one of the best aspects of Jomo Kenyatta is the fact that many regional flights board from gates 3/4, which basically means that you get to walk across the tarmac and among a number of exotic airliners, while trying to find your plane (KQ helpfully offers little signs with the destinations next to the stairs for their fleet). This offers great photo opportunities and if I ever figure out how to include pictures in my trip reports, I will post some.

This morning´s flight is operated by one of the pair of CRJ-100s which Jetlink has recently bought, a plane which seems to be in good condition. The load is less than 50 percent and I find myself a nice window seat. In terms of equipment, Jetlink wins hands-down vis-a-vis East African. The DC9 is an old and noisy bird, whereas the CRJ is positively space age in this environment. After a speedy departure, the captain comes on the pa to appologize for the delay "due to operational reasons" (their small fleet of merely three aircraft is probably responsible for that). The service on-board is actually rather decent (and comparable to East African). We get a small cardboard box containing a choice of sandwitches (beef, chicken or veggetarian), some cake and a joghurt. Soft drinks, as well as tea and coffee, are also served. The IFE consists of Jetlink´s on-board magazine, my iPod and the magnificient vistas of the East Africa below. And no, to the best of my knowledge, there is no FF program offered by Jetlink

We arrive in Juba about two hours later than scheduled at 1400. The airport has a single paved runway (a stark contrast to most other airports in South Sudan) and the taxiways are used for parking UN aircraft, so we need to taxi down the main runways after arrival. On any given day you can usually see the huge Antonov and DC9 aircraft used by the UN to carry passengers and cargo from logistic bases in Entebbe and Khartoum, a line-up of MIL helicopters for internal flights as well as an assortment of piston-powered planes operating on behalf of different NGOs and charter outfits. Today, we also saw Marsland Aviation´s Yak-42D operating the daily flight from Khartoum. Unlike at Jomo Kenyatta, Juba airport police discourages photography so I was unable to capture much of this.

After disembarking, it was a quick walk through the heat to the arrival hall. A side note on the paper work: while technically still part of Sudan, the government in Juba actually issues it´s own travel permits for visitors, which are much easier to get (at least in Kampala or Nairobi) than the official visas available from the Sudanese embassies abroad. As a result of this, one can not easily travel to and from areas controlled by Khartoum with these papers. My own travel permit had expired in September 08 but my stay in Nairobi was too short to get a new one, so I was approaching the immigration counter with some concern. I had asked one of my government contact in Juba to come to the airport to assist with this matter, but, of course, he was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, it did not occur to the official at the counter to check the expiry date of my permit and he happily stamped both passport and permit.

Now the only remaining challenge was to retrieve my luggage (no belt in Juba, essentially a truck pulls up near a hole in the wall and then the pieces of luggage are pushed trough. One also needs to clear customs (all bags are opened and inspected) and to find transport to one´s accommodation, which can be a herculan task in Juba. However, I was impressed that both my government minder and the pre-arranged (through Muthaiga) car driver showed up when I was about to leave the departure hall.

To be continued..

eba205

Arnur,

Thank you so much for one of the most interesting TR's I have read in some time. Africa is a special place, and one that pulls you back time and again. I look forward to reading more of this most impressive report soon.

Travel safe,

Elliott

jetfan

Excellent report so far, thanks very much, looking forward to the rest!!

camsean

Wow! Thanks for a really cool trip report (so far).

You gotta the lost of internal flights within Africa .

mad_atta

Fascinating stuff, thanks No doubt Zanzibar (one of my favourite places on the planet) will seem like heaven on earth after southern Sudan...

aaron1262

very interesting thanks!

Arnur

Sorry, it has taken me much longer than expected to continue this TR. I will try to post the next few sectors before leaving again for Nairobi and Juba (and New York City, and Bogóta..) in a week.

During my 48 hours in Juba I learned that the single paved road is even more congested with UN and NGO vehicles than I remembered, that the concept of the Boutique Hotel has made it to South Sudan (Logali House, much recommended), that you can now get foamy cappucino in Juba and that it is hard to get decent software support for a Mac anywhere in Equatoria Province (big surprise, huh?). I also tried - and failed - to download several Gigabytes of software via a Satellite downlink for a fellow Mac user. Continue to be puzzled by the fact that my South Sudanese SIM card has a Ugandan dialing prefix (but would not actually work in Uganda) and that everything in South Sudan from bottled water to cement is trucked from either Kenya or Uganda. Thinking about it, even my driver is from Kenya and this is also where the 4x4 I had rented is registered. I wonder how the Sudanese feel about this. After a number of more or less enjoyable business meetings, it was time to go back to Juba airport for my flight back to Nairobi.

WED 17DEC JUBA - NAIROBI 1215 1400 J0 832 F28

Juba´s airport terminal is clearly not designed to handle the current passenger numbers. This morning there were flights to Khartoum (Marsland Aviation), Entebbe (Air Uganda) and Nairobi (East African and Jetlink) checking in simultaneously. Now, Juba airport does not really have separate check-in stations, but rather one long wooded counter dividing the departure area. The first challenge is to find the right line of people for one´s airline, then to defends one´s position until one gets to the counter. The next step involves a Jetlink representative crossing one´s name of the passenger list and manually adding it to the passenger manifest. Then one has to drag one´s luggage to a single set of mechanical scales after which a luggage tag is fixed and one moves the bag to the security table (behind the check-in area). Juba airport does not employ any x-ray machines (those exist only at the UN compound), so every single item of luggage is hand-searched, tagged with a small security sticker and then dumped in a big pile before being loaded on the plane.

Meanwhile the hapless passenger needs to continue with the immigration formalities, those involve lining up in order to sign a departure sheet and getting permit and passport stamped. Sudan is also among the country´s requiring people to register their passport before departure, something that is now also possible at Juba airport. So one needs to stand in line some more, permit and passport pages are xeroxed, one pays about 70 US$ and is then free to leave the country. This procedure is actually an improvement, not long ago one had to spend upward of three hours at the police station in town, which was mighty annoying on short trips.

Boarding pass in hand, permit and passport stamped and having dropped my bag, it is now time to enjoy the facilities of Juba airport. No lounge here, in fact not much beyond a newspaper kiosk and a small café serving soft drinks, coffee/tea and sweets. There is also a separate departure area with a number of benches and a view of the apron. Jetlink was again delayed for about two hours, which I killed drinking overpriced bottled water and reading a book. Meanwhile we watched Air Uganda, Marsland and even East African depart to their respective destination.

Finally, our plane arrived from Nairobi. This time it was an elderly Fokker 28, the only plane of this type operated by Jetlink. There was a secondary security check at the gate, where every passenger was frisked and hand luggage was checked, then another agent looked at the passport stamped. After a short walk on the tarmac I was onboard the plane (open seating on all departures from Juba). I chose a nice window seat and we were off a few minutes later, with the cockpit crew clearly anxious to make up some of the delay (which was never explained). This time - a few days before Christmas - the plane was booked full with people traveling home for the holidays. The service was the same as on the in-bound flight. First a service of soft drinks, then a cardboard box containing a sandwitch (beef, chicken or veggie), some soft cake and either an apple or joghurt, followed by a refill of your softdrink and tea/coffee. I though this was quite decent for a flight of less than 2 hours.

I was a quick walk across the tarmac from the plane to the immigration desk at Jomo Kenyatta airport. With few international planes arriving at mid-afternoon there were few people waiting, I paid the customary 20 US$ for my transit visa and when I got the belt, my bag was already circling. A few minutes later I was in a cab and on the way to my favorite hotel in Upper Hill, fighting the horrible Nairobi rush-hour traffic.

Overall verdict on Jetlink:
Check-in at NBO and JUB was ok, not more or less chaotic than with the competition. I really liked their CRJ, which compares favorably with other aircraft on the route, but this was not the case with the F28. The catering was a bit better than on Eastlink (I prefer the J0 sandwitch) and they were also about 50 US$ cheaper. The main problem were the two hour delays on both flights. I don´t know whether this is a general problem, but I will fly them again in February 09 and see how those flights compare.

Arnur

I had booked this flight as an award ticket using my Flying Blue miles (FB is also the official FFP of KQ) online via KLM. KQ operates a single daily service at noon, while there are morning and evening flights with KQ code-share partner Precision Air (PW). I would have preferred to take one of the PW-codeshares for scheduling reasons, but it seems to be impossible to book sectors on PW metal with FF miles (whereas you can earn miles on some PW sectors including the one between NBO and ZNZ). Anyway, it cost me 12.500 miles and 55 Euro in taxes, as opposed to about 300 US$ for the one-way ticket, so it turned out to be a good deal.

THU 18DEC NAIROBI - ZANZIBAR 1230 1345 KQ 492 B737

I arrived at NBO about one hour before the scheduled departure. Terminal 2 was empty at this time and check-in at the elite counter a breeze. After completing the immigration formalities, I picked up some gifts from the Java House and went to gate 4. KQ has two lounges in NBO, one which is open to elites and a much nicer one reserved for premium class passengers. Given the time, I decided to skip the lounge and to go straight to the gate. It was the same departure areas as my flight a few days ago to Juba. NBO has a strange setup where boarding cards are collected at the entry to the gate area, followed by a secondary security check while nobody is actually checking boarding cards when entering the apron. At this time, there were passengers boarding the PW flight to Dar-es-Salam as well as those of us going to Zanzibar on KQ. While our flight ended up being delayed by about 45 minutes, there were PW passengers arriving from the security check-point and seeing their plane already boarding outside of the window, continuing through an unlocked door, down some stair and onto the plane. All of this without any gate agent to escort them..

Finally, our own flight boarded as well and the gate agent explained that the delay was due to some minor technical issue with one of the toilets (which found taped shut later on). The load was extremely light with may 25 passengers in the B737 and I found a seat near the front of the plane. Before departure a flight attendant asked me whether I was willing to move a few rows back to sit at an emergency exit, supposedly they always need somebody capable of understanding English and of physically opening the exit there. Fine with me, even though space was really not a concern on this empty flight. We took off shortly after.

Service on this short, 90 minute-sector consisted of a towel service and a pass by the drinks cart (complimentary alcoholic drinks were served, but I chose not to partake). A few minutes later we were served a snack in cardboard box containing a small chicken sandwitch and some cake. Not much really, but it was a short flight and I had indulged in a full English breakfast that morning at my hotel. No separate coffee service was offered, but when I asked a flight attendant, she brought me a cup of, unfortunately terribly tasting, coffee soon after. As on my other flights within Africa, the best inflight entertainment were the spectacular view, especially on descent into the Zanzibar archipelago.

We arrived at Zanzibar airport, which is a rather small affair given the fact that there are direct charter flights to Europe and scheduled services to Oman. Immigration was painless (one has to part with 50 US$ for the visa) and so was baggage delivery. A few minutes later I was in the taxi for the brief (15 minutes, 10 US$) drive to Stone Town and my hotel, the Serena Inn.

MilesDependent

Really interesting. Amazing to hear about such a random "quasi-country" as South Sudan. Thanks for posting.

Arnur

There are a few of those, besides South Sudan one of my favorites is Somaliland

MilesDependent

There's a great BBC documentary called "Places That Don't Exist". They covered Somaliland. Seems a very different kettle of fish compared to the rest of Somalia. Other places covered include: Transnistria, Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.