Part 29: Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Baku Heydar Aliev (GYD) on Azerbaijan Airlines
Flight J2 74, booked as AF8176 - Airbus A320 - Seat 2F
STD 10:20am - STA 18:30pm (flight time 5h10m)
Azerbaijan Airlines always intrigued me for some reasons as the legacy carrier from an oil-rich country. Previously branded as AZAL, it served an interesting network from Baku which not only show industry interest (they once flew non-stop to Aberdeen of all places) but also its Turkic background (Urumqi, China). Many of such destinations have since been terminated and old Soviet planes were scrapped, but the airline remained interesting to me.
As reports on it's medium haul routes on narrow-body airlines were scarce, I was all the more excited to try it out. The only ones I could find were from community giants probably well-known here, such as Lucky at One Mile at a Time who tried out the
relatively new 787 service from New York to Baku and Sam Chui flying on some older birds such as the
A340 and B767. Both were very positive and I was curious to see if I would have similar experiences.
The Airbus A320 at the gate. Azerbaijan Airlines does have a beautiful livery in my opinion.
Priority boarding was neatly observed. Not that it was much needed, I never saw such a quiet boarding area as gate lice was completely absent. Only after repeated calls did some more people queue up. It turned out that today would be a very light load. Business class was perhaps 50 percent full, while back in economy I don't think that more than a third of all seats were occupied. The passengers in business class (seemingly all French) were a curious mix as before and after take-off many walked up to meet with the lady seated in 2A at the other side of the aisle. She looked like perhaps the French ambassador to Azerbaijan or someone in a similar function? With aides and/or befriended businessmen catching up with her?
Alas, back to the aeroplane. No crappy euro-business seats on this bird, but comfortable recliner seats. My apologies for not having better pics, I'm still new in the business of reviewing airlines.
Upon seating, the friendly FAs asked if they could hang my coat in a special compartment. After hanging the coat, they quickly came over to hand the menus for today's flight, as well as coming with a tray containing several non-alcoholic PDBs. I settled for an orange juice, which was beautifully presented and came with some candied fruits.
A small amenity kit was brought as well. Apart from the usual stuff such as a small toothbrush it contained dark blue Azerbaijan Airlines branded socks.
Each seat also had a small pillow and a nice blanket.
Also, a voucher for fast track passport control was handed out by the crew, although being the first to disembark this did not prove necessary as all passport booths were completely deserted.
Due to the light load, boarding was quick. Even then it took quite some minutes longer before we were given the permission to leave our gate and taxi the long, long way across the vast premises of CDG.
Our aeroplane parked next to an Air Serbia bird
Concorde spotting at CDG never gets old
The French Presidential plane isn't bad either to see from the window
Air France A340 taking off before our flight
Airborne!
Service kicked off some five minutes after the fasten seatbelt sign went off. A warm towel was brought while the FA inquired what kind of drink I would like, and what my preferences for dinner would be. I settled first for a glass of champagne. Azerbaijan Airlines serves Nicolas Feuillate, a decent business class champagne and similar to the one KLM serves. Interestingly, it also serves Mumm sparkling wine, as well as a sparkling red from Azerbaijan.
The champagne was swiftly brought over and came with a ramekin of nuts.
Hot towel service and champers
The wine menu of Azerbaijan Airlines was
huge, and had plenty of interesting options from Azerbaijan. I like it when airlines promote their own cuisine on board, and I was definitely looking forward to try out a few of the wines even though the international options weren't the most appealing I have ever found in a business class cabin. Let's have a look at both the food and beverage options on today's flight:
I wanted to opt for the cold mezze plate as a starter but unfortunately the only available option was the assorted meat option. The starter was completely forgettable and not particular tasty at all, and I ended up washing most of it away with the very drinkable Chablis. The salad however was fresh and tasty, and I can't fault the presentation of the meal. Extra kudos for the tiny flower being put on every tray table as decoration.
Starter: assorted meats, washed away with a Laroche Chablis
Luckily, the main of “Murkutush chicken” was much, much better. The Savalan viognier from Azerbaijan was pretty decent, too.
I paired the cheese course with the semisweet Shah Shamakha wine, which was drinkable.
Having had enough alcohol for now, I opted for a tea with the dessert, which was tasty enough but not very memorable. The candied fruits were however delicious.
The whole meal service took perhaps an hour. The main was very good, the presentation of all dishes superb and service well-intended and friendly, but overall it wasn't very memorable. Quality-wise, most Aeroflot dishes and especially the Air France dish on my previous connecting flight were better, and both airlines have better wines too in my opinion. Just perhaps I put my expectations a bit too high here as besides the starter I couldn't really find anything wrong.
During the meal service (and unfortunate moment, if you ask me) tablets and headphones were handed out. Compared to the ones at Aeroflot, the range of interesting shows and videos was much less impressive. I still managed to find something interesting though: you can't go wrong watching Vinnie Jones exploring far-flung corners of Russia.
Vinnie is always bad-...
Vinnie interacting with a provodnitsa on board a Russian train. Not a situation I would ever imagine seeing Vinne in!
The more than five hours flying distance went by relatively quickly. Great Caucasus views one hour or so before landing.
Descent into Baku is always a bleak affair. I once flew TBS-DOH (Tbilisi to Doha) on Qatar Airways, which has an intermediate stop at Baku. Somehow, it always seems to rain, with the views on approach being enormously grey and dreary. The
Absheron peninsula where the airport is located is really not the place where I'd ever like to live..!
After landing, the friendly FAs returned the jackets to each passenger. No queues at passport control meant that within minutes after disembarking I was in country number 68 or so on my list of visited countries, being ready for a new adventure.
In short: I might have set my expectations a bit too high after reading some scarce reviews and might have been a bit disappointed after the flight, but in hindsight it was a perfectly enjoyable trip. Proper business class seats, friendly FAs, beautifully presented food which tasted fine and OK enough wines. I would certainly not hesitate flying Azerbaijan Airlines again and I was curious to see how the return flight would compare.
Comparing it to Aeroflot though, I think the Russians have a more consistent product, both in food and service.
Next up: Two days in Baku, a surprisingly beautiful and interesting city.