Azerbaijan Airlines Review - my experience on their 767 (Baku to Istanbul 2019)

Hello and welcome to another video thanks for joining me I am in Baku the capital of

Azerbaijan I'm Paul Lucas and today I'm flying Azerbaijan Airlines in economy

class on their Boeing 767 I'm off to Istanbul come join me Baku Airport has to

be one of the most unique pieces of architecture you can pass through as an airline passenger both terminals are equally distinctive and different from

one another. Today I'm travelling from Terminal 1, which is where Azerbaijan's international

departures are handled. The unique design continues inside. It's a really interesting

and unusual space. This airport is quite unlike any other I've been to

Check-in for Azerbaijan Airlines is on the ground floor. There are some check-in kiosks

where you can bring your boarding pass, but if you do have checked baggage like I do today

you'll still need to drop off your bags at the manned check-in counters. If you don't have lounge access and you're still looking for something to eat or drink landside

there's McDonald's and a proper coffee shop which are located on the mezzanine level. Passport control and the departures level is located upstairs on the first floor

Again, the unique design continues here. All of the spaces are broken up with these weird half-shell pod things

They contain everything from cafes to children's play areas and there are also some sleeping pods which I noticed

I wonder how often they get used. I'm not sure how many people actually connect here in Baku

There are several business class lounges upstairs on the top floor of the airport

Now as I've got an economy ticket I'm not able to get into Azerbaijan Airlines business class lounge

But there is a priority pass lounge and I'm using my priority pass card to access it today

In contrast to the rest of the airport, which left a massively positive impression on me

this lounge is rather underwhelming. Nonetheless, you're able to get a half-decent breakfast here and a cup of tea if you want

With about 40 minutes to go until departure, it's nearly time to board, and time to head to the gate

This is our aircraft today, a Boeing 767-300 of Azerbaijan Airlines. This is a wonderful livery, by the way. I love Azerbaijan's blue colour scheme

Let me know what you think of the livery in the comments below. Also on the apron is an Embraer of Buter Airways, which is the low-cost subsidiary of Azerbaijan

Airlines which serves domestic and secondary international destinations Shortly it time to board And for those of you who are new to this channel I recommend that you follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I give live updates on all of my trips

Economy class on this Azerbaijan 767 is in a 232 configuration. I've always liked the 767 because airlines aren't particularly tempted to cram more seats into the back than it can otherwise withstand

If you're travelling on this aircraft, you may want to avoid the last rows on the window sides

There is no window here. The width of the seat is perfectly fine and the legroom is pretty generous too

I'm not sure why all this fabric hangs down from the seat pocket. There's a good six inches between my knees and the actual seat

Shortly before takeoff, the cabin crew pass through the cabin and hand out some boiled sweets

This used to be a pre-flight habit back when I was a child, but the practice seems to have

almost died out amongst mainstream airlines now. Thank you

Today route will see us cover the 1 miles to Istanbul at 36 feet and it will take us around 2 hours and 20 minutes The 767 is an older aircraft so it always positive to see USB charging points that have

been retroactively installed on them and yes they do work. Let's take a quick look at the

in-flight entertainment on board. There is of course a moving map and flight detail screen

and there's also a selection of TV and films to watch. I think it's important to remember that the

main market for this flight is people from Turkey and Azerbaijan connecting between those two

countries. For the Western viewer, there isn't really a great deal to whet the appetite in terms

of TV or film. Overall, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the condition and quality of the

cabin. They even have individual air vents above the seats. Now that's something that doesn't

actually come as standard on new build aircraft, would you believe? One of the great highlights of

flying this route is that it travels directly over some of the Caucasus mountain range

This remote and inhospitable region is utterly spectacular from the air. It's a real treat to be travelling over these for over half an hour

One of the drawbacks of travelling over such bounteous terrain is there is occasional turbulence

but in my view, no pain, no gain. About an hour after take-off, breakfast was served by the crew

Now, I'd already had a small breakfast in the lounge before I departed, because I had read some rather negative reviews of Azerbaijan's catering

Overall, I thought this was pretty nicely presented. and I really love the 50s feel that that lovely blue tray gives to the whole setup

Again, I think it's important to remember there aren't going to be many Western Europeans on board a flight like this

and therefore the catering isn't done towards our sensibilities and preferences. However, I was keen to see what was under the foil, and to be honest, it's not good

As far as I can tell, this is some sort of poultry sausage, baked beans, which were the size of butter beans, and a very strange cheese and potato bake

The most diplomatic thing I could say about this breakfast is, it just wasn't for me

The meal service concluded with a cup of coffee, which is served along with some sweets and some packaged nuts

The coffee wasn't bad at all, and I have to say the crew on board this flight were pretty good

They were smiling and friendly, and approachable, and had no problems at all with only speaking English

Azerbaijan Airlines also has its own in-flight magazine, and this one was particularly interesting for me to read

Firstly I was quite surprised at the extent of their route network which you can see here on this map One place I really like to fly with them is New York They use their 787 Dreamliner on this route and the fares can be pretty cheap

from New York to Baku. Most of the tourist-oriented articles are written in English and this is a

particularly interesting one about Azerbaijan's largest national park. I guess the articles that

are written only in Azerbaijani have a more local relevance only. Soon we're descending into the

Istanbul area. Now, Istanbul is a vast metropolis, around three times the size of London, and this

is something that you often can't appreciate until you view the city from the air. I was excited to

catch a glimpse of Heyda Passat station, which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. From here, the

historic and evocative Trans-Asia Express used to serve Tehran in Iran. Unfortunately, that service

is no longer and the station has currently closed renovations. So, to sum up, I really enjoyed my flight with Azerbaijan Airlines

Sure, the food wasn't too great, and the aircraft is an older one, but there's always a tremendous novelty in flying one of these unusual carriers

This flight cost me £105 one way. That's around €120. The value isn't too bad considering there aren't many carriers competing on this route

and of course you still get a breakfast, even in economy class

Now that's an aspect of service which has pretty much died out among most European airlines

and the ones in North America too. I'll wrap things up here

Please leave a comment below, especially if you like the video, give me a thumbs up and

please do consider subscribing to the channel for more content just like this

For now, thanks for watching and safe flying