Greetings to all!
I want to warn readers that in this review I will not indulge in a rare airline and will not talk about a non-trivial direction. Here you can read about one of the Moscow airports that has pretty much set its mouth on edge, about an ordinary domestic flight, about a well-known Russian airline, about a less familiar and rarely seen in the reviews, but still a banal regional Russian airport of arrival (by the way, flashed in one of recent reviews), and in this aspect you will not learn anything new and unusual for yourself. But there is one nuance for which I decided to write and which you have already guessed from its name: the flight took place exactly at the moment when one year passes into another. And in this flight, due to the peculiarities of its trajectory, it was another task - to determine at what point in time I met this very New Year.
But first things first.
The background of the flight.
The idea to celebrate the New Year in flight was suggested to me by one of the Telegram channels, which informed me that the S7 airline offers sales for flights within the country to many destinations at the end of December - beginning of January. I thought - why not? At the end of December I will be in Moscow, there were no plans to celebrate the New Year at that time. And in general, there is something exciting and intriguing in this - to celebrate the New Year in an unusual way. Three or four years ago, I also wanted to meet him not as an average person. At that time, a circular train was running from Moscow to Moscow. He departed on the evening of December 31 from one station and arrived on the afternoon of January 1 at another, closing the circle somewhere in the Tula region. But tickets for it were sold out like hot cakes, and I didn’t have time to buy even in the NE - everything was sold out. Perhaps this failed case made me realize this idea this time.
I return to the story. I began to choose an acceptable direction in order not only to celebrate the New Year on the road, but also, taking into account possible force majeure (departure delay, for example), to meet it in flight. Despite the domestic flight, I wanted to choose a place exotic and where I had never been before. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky looked tempting, but S7 offered a flight there only with a transfer, which was not part of my plans. Chita, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Novosibirsk .. I have been to all these cities in my time. Maybe Kazan .. a new city for me, but it's too close and risky (because I can meet the New Year on the ground with a short flight). Then maybe Blagoveshchensk? Although I have been there many times over the past 10 years, and before that I even lived in it, but this is still my hometown. Therefore, it would be great to fly there just like that, combining an unusual experience and nostalgia.
Done! Celebrating the New Year on a flight to Blagoveshchensk!
The S7 website offered obscenely tempting prices on its sale. I did not plan to take luggage with me. What did I see at the cost of a flight to the Far East? The price of a flight lasting 7-8 hours was 6,000 rubles! Are you seriously? Wrap two, please!
Since I still had to go back, I had to decide on a return date as well. Flying the next day and the following day seemed highly impractical. Given the large time difference and jet lag syndrome, the return flight seemed ideal after a couple of days spent in the Far East. I decided to take a return ticket on January 4th. But on this date there were no more tickets on sale, but nevertheless the price remained quite reasonable:
As soon as the tickets were purchased, I began to worry about issues related to the peculiarity of this flight. Despite my most beggarly tariff, there was curiosity in some nuances. For example, will flight attendants dress up as snow maidens? Will the crew commander replace the President at the most crucial moment for a parting and congratulatory speech? Will champagne be served on board? Will passengers be served a handful of Olivier? Will in-flight meals differ from the usual fish/chicken/vegetarian? Recently, I have only flown with foreign airlines, mostly African ones, which have taught me to have a good gastronomic and especially alcoholic variety on board, so by inertia I expected the same on the upcoming flight. In any case, I will get answers to my questions already during the flight itself, I just had to wait and hope.
There was one more, let's say, technical moment that intrigued me. When we celebrate the New Year on earth, we do it according to the current time of the given time zone. With regard to the upcoming flight, the New Year will come at the destination even before the plane takes off. Technically, the moment of the meeting of the New Year (announcement of the commander) will most likely be associated with the place of departure, that is, with Moscow time. However, this flight is also interesting because its trajectory will be oriented strictly to the east, towards the sun. Therefore, when the New Year arrives Moscow time during the flight, the aircraft will not be in the Moscow time zone. This is well illustrated by a map of Russia's time zones with the flight path of my flight plotted on it:
The trajectory on this map is not plotted with a simple stroke of a curve from the point of departure to the point of arrival, but shows the true position of the aircraft during its flight over the corresponding territory. Provided that the aircraft leaves the runway at approximately 20:00 (the history of this flight from 24flightradar.com suggests that this is the most likely scenario), at the time of the aircraft’s transition from the MSC + 0 zone to the MSC + 2 zone, the aircraft will fly for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. This means that the local time will instantly change from 21.15 to 23.15. The MSC+2 zone, where my flight path passes, is quite extensive and it will take almost two hours to fly through it. So, somewhere in this zone, a real meeting of the New Year will happen, even if the departure delay is up to 1 hour. Most likely this will happen in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, 10-15 minutes before the flight near Khanty-Mansiysk.
But in Moscow at this time it will be 22.00 on 12/31/2022, and in order to celebrate the New Year technically, There are two hours of flight ahead. After this time, the plane will fly over the Krasnoyarsk Territory, so when the New Year happens in Moscow, the board will be located over the territory where it will be 4 in the morning. And if the departure delay is more than half an hour, then the "Moscow New Year" will happen at the place where it will be 5 am (the plane will already fly into the Irkutsk region, which is located in the MSC + 5 zone).
Thus Thus, in this flight it will be possible to meet two New Years - first the true one, and after two hours - the technical one. would be at a time when in the first zone it is still 2022, and in the new one it is already 2023. That is, under such conditions, a paradoxical situation would occur in which passengers would not meet the true New Year, it would simply not exist for them.
According to the schedule, the plane should land three hours after the Moscow New Year, when Muscovites will still be sitting at their festive tables, but at the landing site it will be far from early morning - 9 o'clock!
Now I turn to the main part of the review.
Choosing a seat.
30 hours before departure, I received a letter in the mail that check-in for my flight was open. Began to register, came to the choice of seats. The choice on my tariff turned out to be paid, the prices depended on the location of the seats. Taking into account the fact that I always choose a seat by the window (when possible), I also wanted to take the end of the cabin traditionally for myself (so that the wings do not interfere with viewing the views from the porthole) and always on the starboard side, since this side provides excellent view of Blagoveshchensk and the Chinese city of Heihe. But for some reason I thought that the board would not be 100 percent full, and there would be empty seats in the rear of the cabin. The main problem will only be to get ahead of those who want to take them immediately after the end of boarding. I've been through this many times, learned from experience. During a long night flight, these free seats (3 seats side by side) are in high demand, as they allow you to take the much-desired horizontal position. I remember my last flight to Blagoveshchensk in 2019: then, during check-in, I bought a seat by the window, and after landing, it turned out that these seats are at least .. eat whatever you want. Then I flew with the wide-body aircraft of the Icarus airline and out of about 300 seats on the plane, only 55 were occupied - that was how many passengers flew, and it was possible to sit anywhere. In addition, the random selection of seats was usually favorable: I always got window seats. Only once, on a flight between Nairobi and Mauritius, I got the middle one, and a full plane and a fellow passenger sitting next to me who did not want to change places were added as "bonuses".
This time I also decided to use a random choice, and if the random gives me a pig, then I would change the place for a fee. But the computer winked at me with a caustic smile - seat 3C fell out: it turned out to be at the aisle, but with extra legroom, which, it turns out, cost more than half the price of the ticket:
The seat did not change, leave as is. At least there will be no one ahead. Therefore, no one will throw back the seat back on me. And when descending, if there are seats left by the window to the right, I will change seats.
The day of departure has come. I chose the Aeroexpress for a trip to the airport. When departing from Moscow, in order to get to the airport, I adhere to the rule that I do not deviate from - if the departure is night or morning - I take a taxi, if it is daytime or evening - only Aeroexpress. It's better not to joke with Moscow traffic jams. The rule has never failed, but only in relation to Moscow. Once I tried to apply it in another city - and almost paid for it. Once in Paris in the evening I went to Charles de Gaulle airport on the RER train, and almost missed the plane to Valencia. The train, without explanation, stopped at some station and after 20 minutes the driver announced that the train was not going any further. Either something broke there, or preventive work, in general, everyone was shown the way out. According to the locals, such moments happen to them from time to time and this is normal. Don't worry, it's ok!! This is not just an electric train, but an electric train that goes to the airport! The train passengers, most of whom are air passengers like me, and half (including me) who do not speak French, with curses, each in their own language, poured out in an international mass somewhere in a suburban village and began to hail a taxi chaotically and convulsively. Thanks to the locals, they helped with their applications on the phone - they called a taxi for everyone, they co-operated singles into groups, who needed one terminal. Apparently, they are already used to helping in this way, and within 20-30 minutes the crowd gradually dissipated. I also took a taxi with the same late person as me, and managed to catch the flight.
I like Aeroexpress more than taxis - while you are driving, emotions play on the upcoming flight and, in general, on the anticipation of the trip, which, in principle, is already
45 minutes separate the traveler from the center of Moscow and the airport, in my case, Domodedovo. Getting off the Aeroexpress:
It makes no sense to describe Domodedovo in detail - it is licked in numerous reviews from head to toe. I will only mention some of the nuances. Relatively recently, the terminal has grown with an additional space connecting the Aeroexpress platform and the aerovocal complex:
You get off the train, go into this space, bypassing it go down the escalator and you go through a wide corridor:
at the end of the corridor, after checking and passing the bags through the scanner, you get to another escalator that leads to the departure area.
The departure zone turned out to be sparsely populated. Compared to other major airports visited in the past year, Domodedovo seemed to be clearly at a disadvantage in terms of space/number of passengers. Even the scoreboard spoke about it - in the flight schedule there were breaks between flights of 20-45 minutes, and between 3 and 6 hours there were no flights planned at all!
Another feature of the destinations - almost all they are internal and to the southern republics of the former USSR. There were a couple of flights to Dubai, several to Turkey, and Addis Ababa and Bahrain looked completely unnatural against the backdrop of a scattering of Russian destinations. BR] At the counter I asked if the board would be full? They answered that almost to the eyeballs. In this regard, I decided to go for a landing in the last rows in order to pass by my seat and sit on three free seats in a row, if any.
After checking in, I went through a security check and went to a clean area. And again the feeling of vacuum. Numerous empty cafes and shops with bored sellers and cashiers. Since the flight is domestic, there are no duty-free shops, and therefore there is no chance to buy a bottle of champagne at a relatively reasonable price. In one of the stores I found a small pocket-sized bottle of Asti Martini champagne (approximately 150-200 ml, that is, for one good sip) at a price of ... 2000 rubles! Even taking into account the eccentricity of the upcoming flight, of course, he did not take a few drops of champagne for that kind of money. I didn't see anyone else take it. I went to my gate, C3. It turned out to be a corner one and there were no chairs near it to sit down to wait, but there were chairs with tables of another empty cafe right next to it. my gate. Passengers began to accumulate, among them there were many people in military uniforms and children. Moreover, both relatively independent and sitting on the hands of adults, i.e. very small, which did not bode well.
The landing was announced and the line of passengers began to move. He came to the end of the line, but did not stand in it, but was localized somewhat at a distance in order to observe from afar and be guaranteed to be the last to enter. A few of the passengers seemed to be following the same tactic, for when the line was almost over, more and more people began to come up from afar. To get through, you had to scan your boarding pass through the terminal, after which a plastic gate opened, allowing the passenger to enter the air bridge. Well, that's all, everyone who wants to fly this flight, it would seem, is over. After waiting for a theatrical minute after the passage of the last passenger, I also went to boarding.
I thought that I would go through the already empty air bridge and be the last one on board, making an apologetic face to the flight attendants, but at the turn of the air bridge I came across a crowd of passengers waiting in line to get on board:
Bye I stood in line, behind I heard a clatter - more passengers! These passengers turned out to be three military men, whom I kindly let forward to their comrade standing in front my place, I squeeze deep into the cabin, at the same time assessing the situation - are there any empty seats on the port side. The plane was indeed almost full, which I realized when I reached the middle of a small cabin (less than 30 rows), but in the middle three seats in a row on the port side were empty at once. What I need, but over the wing. In the back, empty seats were visible, but it was impossible to make out whether three seats in a row were empty. Therefore, looking back and making sure that there were no more incoming passengers, he sat down on these three empty seats. It is strange that all three were free. But the neighborhood turned out to be very noisy prospects. Ahead were two adults and two children, one of which was a baby without a seat, the second was three years old. Further along the same side - again two small children about three years old, opposite through the passage along the same row - a baby in her arms, a row further - another baby in her arms and a small child with a place. And that's just the immediate area. In other places, small children also flew pointwise.
In this regard, there is a certain contrast between flights outside Russia and inside Russia or if one of the destinations is Russia. This contrast is children. On domestic foreign destinations, seeing a small child (if it is a regular flight, and not a charter for a vacation) is a rarity, but on our own it is a common thing. Understand me correctly, I have nothing against children, but I think that taking them on a long flight without extreme necessity at an age at which they still do not control their actions or emotions is a torment for themselves and for their parents and for passengers. Although, for some parents, it seems to me, this is not seen as a torment. They just put everything on the brakes, let the child go free swimming (where will he go from a flying plane), when they get tired of messing around with him or calming him down - they just let him out into the aisle and abstract from him. It was not for nothing that I made this digression, since its consequences took place during the flight.
I return to the chronology of the review.
After I took my seat, I was distracted by the phone and did not notice how they began to pull us away from the air bridge , and a demonstration of the safety instructions began:
The engines were started, drove to the starting point. At some point, a wing of the terminal with international departure gates appeared through the window, with only one side parked alone: on the other hand, I took a piece of it through the opposite porthole at a large zoom. Nostalgia worked: just a couple of months ago, I used the services of this airline, which took me to a heavenly place:
During taxiing, the crew announced a standard greeting, without any hint of the New Year. We went to the starting point and, exactly as we expected, analyzing the actual meeting place of the New Year, took off from the ground at 20.00. There were 7 hours of flight ahead and the onset of the New Year in 4 hours.
Breaking away, after a few seconds they entered the cloud layer, breaking through which the starry sky appeared:
The clouds below were solid (it seems that there is no other way in Moscow in winter), but spots through them the yellow lights of the settlements were visible, which made it seem that we were floating over one giant fried egg:
We climbed. He studied the contents of the pockets of the backs of the chairs. The pocket was not the usual mesh bag at the bottom of the chair, but was mounted at the top in the most rigid structure of the chair, emphasizing its ergonomics: with leather upholstery, which was comfortable to sit on:
In the pocket were a logbook and safety instructions. The latter was quite bulky, formed from thick cardboard folded several times:]
Airline magazine:
Flipping through it, I found an article dedicated to the city - the destination of my flight:
As for the toilet - nothing I did not find anything unusual in it, except that it turned out to be extremely cramped.]
In the first hour, the flight proceeded as usual, nothing hinted that the passengers of the plane would meet the New Year in the air. Only one passenger put papier-mchampagne. Immediately afterwards, a stewardess and a steward rolled out a cart heavily laden with bottles of champagne. It started, I thought!
The cart caught up with my row. The champagne turned out to be Abrau-Durso, one of the best Russian brands.
Only brut was available, which I found out when I asked for a semi-sweet one. In ordinary life, I don’t like brut, it’s too dry, but on board a flying liner, my personal taste whims are inappropriate, so I took what was offered. The champagne, which was poured into a plastic cup, was served with a small shortbread-cookie, dressed in a square festive package. It all looked pretty nice. Thanks to S7 for this sign of attention and congratulations! One could not count on any feast and drunkenness during the flight, where safety comes first, and the fact that the passengers were congratulated in this way is already pleasant. Moreover, on the boxes with the logo of the airline, it was written "congratulations", which indicated that this was a one-time action, and the company developed this format specifically for its New Year's flights. The congratulations looked like this:
If all passengers were poured at the same time, perhaps someone would decide on a toast, and this would bring travelers together and untie them. But when the back rows languished in anticipation, the front rows had already knocked over their glasses and drained them to the bottom, biting a cookie. The cookie turned out to be very spicy in taste, and the confectionery powder applied over the golden color made it look unusual.
Thus, congratulations on the New Year more than two hours), passed routinely and quietly. No standing ovations, exchanges of opinions, applause, claps. After the New Year's treat, another cart was rolled out, but with the standard purpose of offering soft drinks before dinner was served. Asked for orange juice and sparkling water:
After distributing drinks, they rolled out another cart loaded with dinner. Since I was sitting in the middle of the salon, I still had a choice of dishes. On the return flight, I was sitting on one of the last rows (33rd, but the board was different - A-321), and by the time it was my turn, only vegetarian food remained - buckwheat with mushrooms. Now, from the proposed vegetarian, chicken or meat, I chose the latter (from the lips of the stewardess it sounded like a steak with mushrooms). Served hot and a branded box:
Carefully opening the foil lid so as not to get burned and smeared, and opening the box, my dinner appeared:
As you can see, New Year's notes were present in it in the form of Olivier salad, which was eaten before I found mayonnaise in a single-dose package at the bottom of the box, which was intended specifically for Olivier. If I had seasoned the olvier with mayonnaise, the salad would not have seemed a little dry, but would have revealed the entire subtle flavor palette of this Russian dish with a French name. As for the steak, it was excellent. The meat that made it up was chopped, and not from a whole piece, which eliminated the possibility of long chewing due to the presence of veins in it. It's one thing to chew at home, when you can just spit it out if you get tired of chewing for a long time, but if you run into meat on board the plane, like a long-playing record, then getting rid of it will be very, very problematic. There will be two ways out - either chew until victorious or swallow whole with the risk of choking or tearing the esophagus. So, my steak on board was chopped, seasoned with some kind of white sauce, most likely creamy, and finely chopped mushrooms. To the airline chef from me - 5 points for this meat. To be honest, after the cuisine of the Kenyans and especially the Qataris, which I have tried over the past six months, I did not expect that I could taste something similar in piquancy. But the Ethiopians did not stand next to them either. With them - it's not only with Qatar Airways and Kenya Airways, but also with S7. Although I can throw a stone from the Ethiopians to S7 in another aspect - the amount of food and the frequency of feeding: Ethiopians are fed firstly, for slaughter, and secondly - twice on flights lasting more than 7 hours, while S7 - only once.
Meat and salad were complemented by a slice of rye bread, a wheat flour bun and butter. And then there was something called cantuccini. This is the first time I've heard of this dish. I tore open the package and took a bite of cantuccini. It looks and tastes like a cross between bread and cookies. Did not impress. Although, judging by the set of letters on the package, this is probably something related to useful and healthy.
With food, it’s understandable, but about drinking, it’s sparse. Alcohol is prohibited on board the S7, the idea of Therefore, in order to wash down a generally pleasant dinner, only tea, coffee and soft drinks were offered. Beer, whiskey, wine, gin, vodka, and other tonics - all this remained in Africa, which taught me to enjoy in flights not only snacks, but also booze - not just booze, but booze in large quantities. Therefore, what I had to drink on this flight looked more than prosaic:
The meal was over at about the moment when the plane was flying over the territory where the New Year has come at the moment. Looking out the window, under the wing one could see rare spills of lights from small settlements and, against their background, flashes barely noticeable to the eye, which clearly meant explosions of firecrackers. The camera lens could not even adjust to the lights of towns/villages, not to mention fireworks.
None of the passengers paid attention to the onset of the actual New Year, at least from my inner circle, who are mainly busy taking care of their small children. Already after two hours of flight, the children were tired, began to crawl on their parents' hands, scream and cry. Some kids were allowed to go into the aisle, however, under vigilant parental control, since there was constant movement in the aisle - after dinner, people went to the toilet. At one point - about half an hour before the New Year, Moscow time - an unpleasant story happened. A mother sitting in front had to get up from her seat and go out into the aisle. For this, the older child was placed in the aisle, but when his mother began to go out, passing the younger one from hand to hand to dad, she accidentally stepped on the foot of the child who was in the aisle. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the baby was not wearing shoes. There was a sharp cry and weeping. It lasted quite a long time, one of the flight attendants came up and the baby's parents asked her to bring some medicines and a band-aid. The kid screamed non-stop. They brought peroxide and a plaster, at the sight of which the crying turned into hysterics. The clock at that moment showed something around 23.45. Those children who were already sleeping woke up and began to accompany the victim, though not so loudly. Nevertheless, the baby managed to calm down, at least the screams and crying stopped.
Moment X was coming. There were only a few minutes left before the New Year. It became clear that there was no need to count on champagne in the second round (there was a glimmer of hope that more would be smashed before the New Year). A couple of passengers, one with elk antlers on his head, stepped out into the aisle holding paper cups filled with something. I only had two tangerines from the New Year's menu, which I had previously peeled, and a glass of sparkling water. In five minutes, the aircraft commander made a congratulatory speech through a microphone in Russian and English. Rising from his chair, he looked around the cabin - about half of the passengers were asleep, despite the romance of the moment. I checked the moment of the New Year by phone: when the time digits switched from 23:59 to 0:00, I took my glass, looked around and nodded to those passengers who were not sleeping, raising the glass. There was no wow, no applause, nothing emotional in the cabin. Only the two aforementioned passengers entered the penetration passage at the moment. I took a photo of the cabin about 30 seconds after the New Year:
There were still about three hours left before landing. After the moment of the New Year, nothing interesting happened - the children calmed down, the adults stopped walking down the aisle - everyone tried to fall asleep and sleep.
About an hour and a half before arrival, the sky in the direction of flight began to brighten. The first Far Eastern morning of the new year was coming.
It was getting light very quickly. The sun was not visible, since it was located opposite the axis of the aircraft's movement, but already its reflection could be observed on the rim of the porthole, which indicated that at the point where we were flying, it was already dawn.
In the cabin, the lights were turned on and the flight attendants once again rolled out the carts. I remember the times when full meals were offered twice in this (and the opposite) direction. Now there is no second time and instead of it - they simply offer water. With or without gas. Passengers began to wake up, some rushed to the toilet. The passage was once again seething with life. Someone even released children into it to warm up, who were just learning their first steps in life. Along with the adults in the aisle and the water cart, traffic jams began to appear. Adults tried not to hurt children with an unpredictable trajectory of movement. The flight attendants with the cart also moved it very carefully so as not to inadvertently injure any child. Watching this picture, I wondered about the presence of a sense of tact in the parents of children running at that moment along the aisle. I'd rather keep silent and not express my position. The stewardesses are smart, they steadfastly and professionally endured these inconveniences, realizing that if they ask mothers to look after the children, then the latter may wake up from such requests the egos of "mother" and "foal".
After the passengers were drunk water, announced a decline. There was an interesting moment of flight. I don’t remember how many times I flew to Blagoveshchensk, but I remember well that before landing, the seats to the left by the window give a magnificent view of Blagoveshchensk and the Chinese city of Heihe. This moment lasts literally 10-15 seconds, but during this time a view of the central part of the capital of the Amur Region and the entire Chinese city opens up. From a height, it is well evident that the Chinese Heihe is about three times smaller than Blagoveshchensk in area.
Since this time I was sitting above the wing, about 50 percent of the view was closed from my view.
This time the plane flew quite close to the Amur River, which in this place is the border between Russia and China, and most of the territory of Blagoveshchensk remained on that side, but its central part and China were on the left. First, Heihe appeared, which was completely visible:
If you look closely, behind Heihe you can see the road that leads to the local airport and further - the runway. In 2009, I had to take a domestic flight from China Southern to Beijing. Then there were tough times in terms of airfare, and for some time it was cheaper to get from Blagoveshchensk to Moscow by plane from Heihe via Beijing.
After a few seconds, the southeastern part of Blagoveshchensk became visible, and then the center:
And then two adjacent cities at the same time:
As I said above, the flight over the cities did not continue more than a couple of tens of seconds. Further, as we descended, suburban areas appeared:
About half a minute more - and landing.
A new runway is currently being built at Blagoveshchensk Airport, which will run parallel to the old one currently in force. After the new runway is built, the old runway will be turned into a taxiway. But now, the plane lands on the runway, reaches its end, where it turns around and rolls back along the runway. Turns onto the taxiway towards the parking lot and stops.
Stops engines after stopping. A tractor pulls up to him, hooks the plane and pulls him to the parking lot:
There are no boarding bridges at Blagoveshchensk airport, and this is of course disgusting - how could they not have been foreseen in the conditions of a cold winter, it is not clear .
Having stretched the plane to the parking lot, the waiting equipment was already visible from the window - a mobile gangway and buses:
After the stop, the doors were quickly opened and everyone was invited to the exit. Upon exiting the plane, I was blasted with the burning, but clean air of the Far Eastern winter. On the ground I took a photo of the side, for history:
From the plane to the terminal - literally 50-100 meters and this distance is more logical and faster to walk, as is done at some airports, than to stand in bus waiting for it to gradually fill up with passengers. We drove up to the terminal, I went into the terminal building, I looked around, taking a picture of the place from where passengers enter the terminal from the plane. There is also a baggage claim area:
The arrivals board showed that my flight was the penultimate one for today, after which the board from Krasnoyarsk would only arrive.
In this regard, the departure area turned out to be unusually empty, where there was a check-in for the return flight to Moscow by the plane with which I arrived:
I mentioned that the departure hall was unusually empty because the planes were flying in Blagoveshchensk airport takes place in the morning. If you pay attention to the arrivals board in the photo above, then the main part of the aircraft arrives/departs in the interval from 6 to 9 in the morning. And at this time, chaos is happening at the airport. This terminal of domestic airlines was opened relatively recently - in 2010, and at that time its area was quite enough to serve one or a couple of boards per day. Now the passenger flow of the airport has increased many times, and the existing areas would also be more than enough if arriving and departing aircraft were evenly spaced in time during the day. International arrivals/departures were carried out from the international terminal (before the pandemic, flights to Thailand, China and Vietnam flew at different times), therefore, with their resumption, they will not affect the loading of the domestic airlines terminal. Now international air traffic exists only in the form of occasional cargo.
This is the situation observed at the airport on the day I returned to Moscow, this is the check-in hall, where there are 6 counters:
And this is the so-called clean zone, which has only two boarding gates :
These two exits are located in the same place:
To be fair, there is a second floor in the dirty area, where there is a sufficient number of seats, and a couple of cafes. They say it has delicious coffee, but I haven't tried it myself.
And I would like to mention one detail about the airport toilets. It's just a mockery. When you close the cubicle door, it comes very close to the toilet, which makes it extremely inconvenient for the administration of physiological needs. In addition, many passengers use the toilet for changing clothes, since the main passenger flow comes from Moscow (which means a long flight) and in the winter season the passenger visits the toilet to put on extra warm clothes after arrival or take them off before departure.
At the exit of the terminal building there is a bus stop and behind it is a parking lot with more than enough parking spaces.
The airport is located 16 km from Blagoveshchensk , transport links with which are established by the municipal bus route, which runs approximately 1 time in 30 minutes.
The terminal building itself (to be more precise, the terminal of domestic flights) looks like this from the side of the parking lot:
Well, actually, that's all. As a bonus, I post a screenshot of my flight from 24flightradar.com:
I apologize and do not judge strictly for the possible lack of photos for the sake of the abundance of letters in this review.
P.S. The next story, planned for publication on this resource, is about a flight with an airline that has not yet been reviewed in the annals of this site and about the destination point, the search engine for which issues: reviews (0), reviews (0), photo (0), forum (0).
Have a nice flight and see you in new directions!
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