Day 1.

Outside Terminal 2 at 4:30am at Dubai International Airport, ready to catch my flight to Moldova.


Being one of the few European countries left to visit, I had been looking at options to travel Moldova for a quite a while. In 2017 Air Moldova started twice weekly flights to the capital Chișinău from Dubai.

I was originally looking at a possible summer trip but at the beginning of 2018 the Air Moldova flight was reduced to once a week and then to be discontinued by April. I hence booked a one-way flight for $230 in February from Dubai to Chișinău on Air Moldova on their now once weekly Friday service.

Options for the return from Chișinău involved long layovers in Moscow or Kiev, or a relatively expensive flight via Istanbul. Another option was to fly back from Odessa in Ukraine for $150 on Ukraine International Airlines. I had wanted to visit the Transnistrian city of Tiraspol, conveniently located approximately half-way between Chișinău and Odessa so the flight back via Kiev seemed to be the best option.


Joining the queue to check-in for my flight to Chișinău.


With today's flight being served by an Embraer E-190 the queue was relatively short.


Next to the Air Moldova check-in was a Flydubai flight chartered by the US military to Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan.


I then headed to the Marhaba lounge where they had some Valentine themed cookies and cake.


In the Airport bus, looking across to a new Flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 with the distinctive sawtooth engine nacelle exhaust.


Climbing the stairs to the Air Moldova Embraer E-190.


The pilot doing some pre-flight work on his tablet.


The Flight Attendant finishing her pre-flight safety demonstration. I have flown the A320 before from the Middle East to Europe, but the E-190 was now definitely the smallest for such a flight.