Belavia
Economy Class
B2 804: VNO-MSQ (Vilnius to Minsk)
27 April 2018
Canadair CRJ-200 (One Class Configuration)
EW-277PJ
Seat 2D
Departure: 08:40PM
Arrival: 09:15PM
The city bus arrived back at VNO without any issues and I was quickly inside the building. The arrivals area of the terminal was formerly the entire airport terminal building. The airport has been expanded in recent years, but they retained the old building and its facade, which I admire. It provides a window into what flying into VNO might have looked like 50 years ago.
The old terminal building was designed in the Soviet style of built in the early 1950s. The new departure terminal was built in 1993.
I had to wait for the Belavia check-in counter to open, as I could not get a BP through their OLCI system. Since I'd purchased my ticket as a one-way, they wanted to verify that I had an onward/return ticket. I told the agent that I did have one, but he did not ask to see it, which was a bit strange. I suspect there aren't many people sneaking into Belarus and overstaying tourist visas.
Boarding pass in hand, I proceeded through security to the lounge. By that time, I was fairly starving, so I made a snack of the various foods in the lounge. Priority Pass came in handy once again. After grazing on snacks, I decided to hunt down something more substantive and I settled on a restaurant near the gate area. Had a ham and cheese panini, which was decent. But a little heavy on the mayo for my taste.
After that, I had to scurry to my gate, which was in the non-Schengen area. Passing through immigration was a breeze and I was in the gate area with time to spare. While waiting for my plane to arrive, I saw this incongruous sight parked on the tarmac.
It isn't often one sees Sky Angkor Airlines plane in this part of the world. Wonder if was here on a charter flight? I can't imagine VNO-REP could possibly be a viable route...
This was my first flight on the fabled and admired Belavia. I'd been looking forward to this flight for years, so you can imagine my excitement when the time finally came to board.
The first glimpse of our mighty CRJ-200.
Did I mention this is a former United Express plane? The irony is delicious, I must say.
EW-277PJ
The interior of the plane definitely showed its age. Looked like it hadn't been refreshed at any point. It still had the English signage common on US domestic regional planes.
Unfortunately, I did not have the row to myself. Seated next to me was a middle aged Belorussian lady who absolutely reeked of cigarettes. Great. Evidently she also didn't believe in an equitable distribution of armrest and leg space. She immediately tried to capture the entire middle armrest for herself, then she manspread her legs into my leg space.
As a seasoned flyer, I've encountered this before. I quickly reclaimed my territorial losses and she behaved herself for the rest of the flight. The remainder of the flight went by without any incidents. We landed at a remote stand and took a quick bus ride to the terminal.
Upon entering the terminal building, I made the mistake of going upstairs to get a visa. Somehow I had it in my head that I needed to get a visa on arrival. That is not the case. Travel to Belarus via MSQ only, is now visa free for 5 days. Pretty nifty!
So I went back downstairs to the immigration area and purchased the requisite health insurance for 2 Euros. I then proceeded to ask the nearby immigration officer if I needed a customs declaration card. She insisted that I did not need one unless I was transiting MSQ to/from the Russian federation. I found that a bit strange, but I heeded her advice and presented myself to passport inspection.
The line was quite short, but the immigration officer scrutinized my passport intensely. In fact, this was by far the most through passport verification I've ever undergone. Aside from the UV light and electronic passport reader, the officer also had a magnifying loupe
which he used to examine my passport in minute detail.
Once he was satisfied that my passport was genuine, we allowed me to enter and I was off to the hotel for the night. I took a cab from the cab stand, which was a mistake. I'd have been much better off getting an Uber instead. I was aware this might happen, but that's the price one pays for convenience in a foreign country. Live and learn.
The BMW X5 taxi had me at my hotel in no time (40 minutes at that time of night).