Dear readers, hello again. I am Smaiyl Makyshov, and I am from Almaty, Kazakhstan. I am 13 years old.
About a month and a half ago, I posted my blog and explained about how Heathrow and Dubai Airports face the tense future, how could governments of UK and UAE could build an another international airport in a good place, and also I have had compared different problems of those 2 different huge airports. If you haven't read it yet, then I would recommend you to read it, it's interesting : Click here
In this blog I would like to compare the services of a Russian airline in years 2014 and 2015, or to discuss how airline's service changed dramatically, even leading up to their bankruptcy.
Before starting, let me tell you that my experience is just a regular passenger's experience. I didn't and I still don't really know anything deeply about Transaero's situation, and I am just comparing the services of the same airline but in different times - 2014 and 2015.
So, let's start. Last year, in June 2014, I had to travel from Almaty to London. We had to buy tickets only 2 days before the travel date, so we didn't have a good opportunity to buy tickets for the leading airlines for this route such as Lufthansa (via Frankfurt), or KLM (via Amsterdam). We wanted to buy tickets for British Airways for the direct nonstop flight to London, despite the service of the airline being a bit worse than Lufthansa and KLM. But, oh wow - tickets were already sold, and tickets for Lufthansa or KLM were far too expensive. Our choice was to try out Transaero for the first time, via Moscow.
I will come back to the service of Transaero at June 2014 later. This year, I also tried out Transaero Airlines service again, from Almaty to London via Moscow Vnukovo. The trip was unplanned, so again, we bought tickets exactly 2 days before the travel date. With the schedule, nothing had changed. Last year and this year, our flight to Moscow departed from Almaty at exactly 6:30am. The thing with schedule changed is the time of arrival at Moscow and the time of departure to London Heathrow from Moscow - now you can arrive 1 hour earlier in Moscow by Moscow time and depart at 14:10 from there instead of 15:10 - because of Russian government decided to come back to time changing at winter and summer. But that doesn't affect the time of arrival in London Heathrow - it stayed the same, 16:10. Another small change is that the terminal of operations at Heathrow Airport for Transaero switched from 1 to 4, because Terminal 1 had to close down. Also, the aircraft operating from and to Almaty had changed - before it was a normal Boeing 737-800, but then it became messy and in September it was either the brand new Airbus A321, or a dramatically old Boeing 777-200. But now, Transaero came back to operate Boeing 737-800 again on this route, and sometimes A321s and B777s. So you know - it's just basically "messy", I would say.
So it was June 2014, when I first experienced Transaero. Unfortunately I got to fly with it to London only one-way. But in September 2015 it was a return ticket which we bought.
Flight Almaty - Moscow Vnukovo. 23 June, 2014. Departure 06:30am, arrival 09:25am.
Everything went basically just normal. We took off on time from Almaty, and so as landed in Moscow a little bit ahead of schedule. The plane was Boeing 737-800, which was about 3 years old, at leasing for Transaero. The food is the key point which I liked - it was really good. There were 2 choices - either Omelet or Pancakes with jam. I have chosen pancakes. It was really nice. There was also a nice tasty black bread with a pleasant yogurt in addition to the pancakes. My mom tried omelet - she said it was tasty and fresh. We were both satisfied with the Transaero's food.
These are pictures of Boeing 737-800 while boarding at Almaty Airport and the food at UN206 Almaty - Moscow flight.
Flight Moscow Vnukovo - London Heathrow. 23 June, 2014. Departure 3:10pm, arrival 4:10pm.
Same pleasant experience. Food had also again 2 options. I don't remember which was the 2nd option, but my choice was chicken with rice. It was really good. Everything was overall good, with those 2 flights I was satisfied, and that was better than I expected Transaero to be. Cabin crew were overall polite and kind (of course, except for some of the stewardess). Of course, I would never expect Transaero, a private airline in Russia, to be as good as Lufthansa or KLM, but I would say that in June 2014 on the route Almaty-London via Moscow Transaero is not more worse than Air Astana.
Flight Almaty - London Heathrow via Moscow Vnukovo. 24 September, 2015. Full experience.
I was far too not satisfied with the experience this time. I felt OK about the airline when I boarded new Airbus A321, but that A321 wasn't different and better than Boeing 737-800; it was just a bit more new and a little bit more comfortable. About the food : I have ordered Muslim meal for myself, and ate the same food, chicken with macaroni, at all 4 flights. Exactly with the same sauce, and every time I ate it, it tasted like it's 2 months old. It was definitely not fresh. At the same time, on the flight Almaty-Moscow normally they offered just omelet, I think. My mom didn't like it. She said that it tasted like it's synthetic and it wasn't pleasant and fresh. Cabin crew were OK, they don't smile when they offer you food or beverages, but they were not rude.
When we arrived in Moscow, we decided to go to see Red Square because we had 6 hour transit time. When we were entering Russian border through customs, the immigration officer was rude to us, and a little bit racist, I would say. He said the following : "Listen, come one by one". My mom asked "Why?", and he replied like that : "Citizens of Moscow can pass together but foreign citizens must come one by one separated from each other, even if among the travelers there is a child". That was a offensive. But you can deal nothing with it. This is an immigration officer.
So we spent an hour walking at Red square, and had enough time to eat some kebab. The journey from Vnukovo Airport to Red Square should take you no longer than 1 hour when there is no traffic, but if you get stuck in traffic, then you will not get out of it quickly. If you decide to go to Moscow and arrive or depart at Vnukovo, allow yourself at least 1 hour to get to or from the airport when you arrive or depart between 7am-11am or 6pm-10pm.
We arrived back at Vnukovo 1 hour prior to departure. The good thing about Vnukovo Airport is that there are never queues for the security control or maybe checking-in when departing. But the staff at security control won't please you. They are not really polite, especially if you are a foreigner. So try to just ignore them while passing, if you don't want to spoil your mood of a trip.
Flight departed on-time, without any serious delays. I would have rate Transaero 7 out of 10, if it was not their poor choice of food and if I didn't ate the same not fresh food for 4 times, and if not an unpleasant experience at Moscow-Almaty flight (see below). The food at Moscow-London segment offered to passengers was again synthetic, or far too not fresh. Our plane was Boeing 737-700, the same type of plane we flew with to London from Moscow last year. The plane didn't look it was really old, but it was no younger than 6 years, I am sure.
We arrived at Heathrow on time, which is good. Flight is finished.
Flight London Heathrow - Almaty via Vnukovo. 27 September, 2015. Full experience
Spending 3 days in England, we had to go back to Kazakhstan. The reason I went to London is just a holiday trip, at my school Thursday and Friday were off because of the national Kurban-Ait Muslim holiday, despite that my school is British. The return flight's time of arrival in Almaty is a bit risky, 05:10 am, it's a little bit risky to come to school late (you must be at your school's tutor group classroom precisely no later than at 8am). But I will tell you the most unpleasant part of the journey a little bit later.
Our flight to Moscow was fine. Everything went also fine. The food, again, was synthetic, but we didn't expect it to be better as we already have seen it when we flew to London. Cabin crew were not bad as well.
This time we've had less time between flights. It should have been 2 hours and 55 minutes, but that number increased up to 3 hours and 30 minutes because we arrived in Moscow Vnukovo ahead of schedule.
We didn't pass customs this time ; we went through connecting flights zone, and entered gates zone. Moscow Vnukovo's Terminal A made me proud of a big size, but a small number of people. You can freely walk, go to shops or restaurants. As far as I know, the capacity of the terminal is around 25 million passengers per year. This is how Vnukovo Airport looks like from above :
Suddenly, we saw that our flight to Almaty is delayed by 30 minutes. But I was sure that any airplane can depart , for example, 1 hour late, and arrive at the destination about 20 minutes late of the scheduled time. It's because the scheduled time of the flight counted is usually more than the normal actual flight time.
Finally, we boarded our aircraft. Our aircraft was really old, it was Boeing 777-200, but it was 20 years old! It had a very small screen for each passenger, and a lot of armrests were broken! The seats were also stiff and uncomfortable.
We took off at around 11pm, totally with about 1 and a half hours delay. That didn't please me at all. I was nervous about getting to my school on time. But the calming-down thing was that the expected flight time is 3 hours and 40 minutes, so at least I would arrive at 5:40 am, go to my home, prepare to school quickly and go to school.
I expected myself to be sleeping all the flight, but that wasn't possible because of broken armrests, full plane, and uncomfortable seats. As soon as we took off, stewardess started to serve passengers with beverages and food. It took them ages to do it. There were only 2 stewardess serving each aisle. It took about an hour for them to serve us. But that wasn't the concern, though ; the stewardess were rude this time. Out of 12 cabin crew members, only 2 were polite and kind. Two of those stewardess with a tray just passed besides us, to another row to serve. We asked them about why did they ignore us, and they said "this is our technique of serving, the next stewardess will serve you" (there were another 2 stewardess coming in front with another trolley, but still about 10 rows ahead of us). We didn't liked it and said to them that we would liked to be served now and that this is not fear , and my mom asked politely : could you please give us water? Then the stewardess said to the other one which was close to us : "just give her water!" spitefully. I don't understand the purpose to fly and to be a stewardess, if you are not happy. In my own opinion, everyone should like their job and do it properly.
And, finally, I received my muslim meal, chicken with macaroni with an unpleasant sauce for the 4th time. How "diverse" is the food at Transaero. Then, I decided to have a little bit of sleep. As a result, I arrived home very tired at 5:40 am with a 30 minute delay, and slept for just an hour because of stewardess' long time serving of food (totally a little less than 2 hours).
The queue at Almaty Airport was long ; it's probably because our flight was about 90% full and it was Boeing 777-200. It took us about 55 minutes to disembark the aircraft, pass through customs, receive baggage, and go. I was on time to my school, fortunately.
So that's the story which I had faced. Conclusions : Transaero gets a rank of 4 out of 10 for the service including food, 7 out of 10 for aircraft, 7 out of 10 for the ticket cost and 6 out of 10 for the punctuality. I still didn't understand the purpose of changing an aircraft to Boeing 777 from Boeing 737 if there will delay occur then (When I was checking in 30-hours before departure, I already knew that it would be Boeing 777 which will take us from Moscow to Almaty).
But let's think - why and how - the service of Transaero became worse?
It's crisis and sanctions. It's the debt that Transaero had before the crisis, and its increase after crisis at the end 2014 - beginning 2015 appeared. All this leads up to Russian - Ukrainian conflict, or if precisely - to President Putin and President Poroshenko. Both of them make their own countries' economy worse and worse. Their braveness will not help them and the country as well, as you see. If the presidents would have lived in peace like they did before, then nothing serious would have happened.
Now, let's blame someone who IS actually guilty of the crisis in Ukraine and Russia.
But we have to consider both sides. Putin is violent because he brazenly took Crimea and added it to Russia, and I think he didn't even asked a permission of Ukraine to do so. But Poroshenko is not correct too - he could not straight away make Ukrainian as the only language in Ukraine in one day. Step by step, without any problems, he could have make it. He could have not supported the rebels at Euromaidan if he wants to be a good example for Ukraine.
To be honest, this crisis and sanctions toward Russia affected and affects Kazakhstan as well. It's mainly because Russia is the first country to which we trade, and we have a really close relationships ; we try to not to spoil our relationship with any of countries in this world.
But let's forget about politics. It's a really hard thing to talk about.
Here's what I think about Transaero's failure :
Over the years 2012-2014, Transaero's debt could have not disappeared. Russian economy started to decline from mid-2014. But 2015 crisis hit not only Russian economy, but also a lot of private companies and businesses like Transaero. International sanctions, the fall of ruble, restrictions of flying above Ukraine, all this made a negative impact for Transaero. By the March 2015, the airline had accumulated already around 1,25 billion USD of debt. This number began to raise and raise, until Aeroflot said that it will acquire 75% of Transaero, but then suddenly Aeroflot announced that it will leave the airline to bankruptcy.
Transaero announced its cease of all operations after 15 December 2015, and on 1 October, 2015 the sale of tickets had already closed. I think my chance to fly with them was one of the last ones, so I got a taste and sense of an airline which faces serious economical problems.
So that's how I saw a big difference of Transaero's service in 2014 and 2015. Do you have any suggestions or comments or questions? Feel free to ask them by emailing me
Thank you guys for reading! Please leave your thoughts below!
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26248275
http://data.worldbank.org/country/russian-federation
http://www.dni.ru/polit/2015/7/22/309964.html
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-per-capita
http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/russia
About a month and a half ago, I posted my blog and explained about how Heathrow and Dubai Airports face the tense future, how could governments of UK and UAE could build an another international airport in a good place, and also I have had compared different problems of those 2 different huge airports. If you haven't read it yet, then I would recommend you to read it, it's interesting : Click here
In this blog I would like to compare the services of a Russian airline in years 2014 and 2015, or to discuss how airline's service changed dramatically, even leading up to their bankruptcy.
Before starting, let me tell you that my experience is just a regular passenger's experience. I didn't and I still don't really know anything deeply about Transaero's situation, and I am just comparing the services of the same airline but in different times - 2014 and 2015.
So, let's start. Last year, in June 2014, I had to travel from Almaty to London. We had to buy tickets only 2 days before the travel date, so we didn't have a good opportunity to buy tickets for the leading airlines for this route such as Lufthansa (via Frankfurt), or KLM (via Amsterdam). We wanted to buy tickets for British Airways for the direct nonstop flight to London, despite the service of the airline being a bit worse than Lufthansa and KLM. But, oh wow - tickets were already sold, and tickets for Lufthansa or KLM were far too expensive. Our choice was to try out Transaero for the first time, via Moscow.
I will come back to the service of Transaero at June 2014 later. This year, I also tried out Transaero Airlines service again, from Almaty to London via Moscow Vnukovo. The trip was unplanned, so again, we bought tickets exactly 2 days before the travel date. With the schedule, nothing had changed. Last year and this year, our flight to Moscow departed from Almaty at exactly 6:30am. The thing with schedule changed is the time of arrival at Moscow and the time of departure to London Heathrow from Moscow - now you can arrive 1 hour earlier in Moscow by Moscow time and depart at 14:10 from there instead of 15:10 - because of Russian government decided to come back to time changing at winter and summer. But that doesn't affect the time of arrival in London Heathrow - it stayed the same, 16:10. Another small change is that the terminal of operations at Heathrow Airport for Transaero switched from 1 to 4, because Terminal 1 had to close down. Also, the aircraft operating from and to Almaty had changed - before it was a normal Boeing 737-800, but then it became messy and in September it was either the brand new Airbus A321, or a dramatically old Boeing 777-200. But now, Transaero came back to operate Boeing 737-800 again on this route, and sometimes A321s and B777s. So you know - it's just basically "messy", I would say.
So it was June 2014, when I first experienced Transaero. Unfortunately I got to fly with it to London only one-way. But in September 2015 it was a return ticket which we bought.
Flight Almaty - Moscow Vnukovo. 23 June, 2014. Departure 06:30am, arrival 09:25am.
Everything went basically just normal. We took off on time from Almaty, and so as landed in Moscow a little bit ahead of schedule. The plane was Boeing 737-800, which was about 3 years old, at leasing for Transaero. The food is the key point which I liked - it was really good. There were 2 choices - either Omelet or Pancakes with jam. I have chosen pancakes. It was really nice. There was also a nice tasty black bread with a pleasant yogurt in addition to the pancakes. My mom tried omelet - she said it was tasty and fresh. We were both satisfied with the Transaero's food.
These are pictures of Boeing 737-800 while boarding at Almaty Airport and the food at UN206 Almaty - Moscow flight.
Flight Moscow Vnukovo - London Heathrow. 23 June, 2014. Departure 3:10pm, arrival 4:10pm.
Same pleasant experience. Food had also again 2 options. I don't remember which was the 2nd option, but my choice was chicken with rice. It was really good. Everything was overall good, with those 2 flights I was satisfied, and that was better than I expected Transaero to be. Cabin crew were overall polite and kind (of course, except for some of the stewardess). Of course, I would never expect Transaero, a private airline in Russia, to be as good as Lufthansa or KLM, but I would say that in June 2014 on the route Almaty-London via Moscow Transaero is not more worse than Air Astana.
Flight Almaty - London Heathrow via Moscow Vnukovo. 24 September, 2015. Full experience.
I was far too not satisfied with the experience this time. I felt OK about the airline when I boarded new Airbus A321, but that A321 wasn't different and better than Boeing 737-800; it was just a bit more new and a little bit more comfortable. About the food : I have ordered Muslim meal for myself, and ate the same food, chicken with macaroni, at all 4 flights. Exactly with the same sauce, and every time I ate it, it tasted like it's 2 months old. It was definitely not fresh. At the same time, on the flight Almaty-Moscow normally they offered just omelet, I think. My mom didn't like it. She said that it tasted like it's synthetic and it wasn't pleasant and fresh. Cabin crew were OK, they don't smile when they offer you food or beverages, but they were not rude.
When we arrived in Moscow, we decided to go to see Red Square because we had 6 hour transit time. When we were entering Russian border through customs, the immigration officer was rude to us, and a little bit racist, I would say. He said the following : "Listen, come one by one". My mom asked "Why?", and he replied like that : "Citizens of Moscow can pass together but foreign citizens must come one by one separated from each other, even if among the travelers there is a child". That was a offensive. But you can deal nothing with it. This is an immigration officer.
So we spent an hour walking at Red square, and had enough time to eat some kebab. The journey from Vnukovo Airport to Red Square should take you no longer than 1 hour when there is no traffic, but if you get stuck in traffic, then you will not get out of it quickly. If you decide to go to Moscow and arrive or depart at Vnukovo, allow yourself at least 1 hour to get to or from the airport when you arrive or depart between 7am-11am or 6pm-10pm.
We arrived back at Vnukovo 1 hour prior to departure. The good thing about Vnukovo Airport is that there are never queues for the security control or maybe checking-in when departing. But the staff at security control won't please you. They are not really polite, especially if you are a foreigner. So try to just ignore them while passing, if you don't want to spoil your mood of a trip.
Flight departed on-time, without any serious delays. I would have rate Transaero 7 out of 10, if it was not their poor choice of food and if I didn't ate the same not fresh food for 4 times, and if not an unpleasant experience at Moscow-Almaty flight (see below). The food at Moscow-London segment offered to passengers was again synthetic, or far too not fresh. Our plane was Boeing 737-700, the same type of plane we flew with to London from Moscow last year. The plane didn't look it was really old, but it was no younger than 6 years, I am sure.
We arrived at Heathrow on time, which is good. Flight is finished.
Flight London Heathrow - Almaty via Vnukovo. 27 September, 2015. Full experience
Spending 3 days in England, we had to go back to Kazakhstan. The reason I went to London is just a holiday trip, at my school Thursday and Friday were off because of the national Kurban-Ait Muslim holiday, despite that my school is British. The return flight's time of arrival in Almaty is a bit risky, 05:10 am, it's a little bit risky to come to school late (you must be at your school's tutor group classroom precisely no later than at 8am). But I will tell you the most unpleasant part of the journey a little bit later.
Our flight to Moscow was fine. Everything went also fine. The food, again, was synthetic, but we didn't expect it to be better as we already have seen it when we flew to London. Cabin crew were not bad as well.
This time we've had less time between flights. It should have been 2 hours and 55 minutes, but that number increased up to 3 hours and 30 minutes because we arrived in Moscow Vnukovo ahead of schedule.
We didn't pass customs this time ; we went through connecting flights zone, and entered gates zone. Moscow Vnukovo's Terminal A made me proud of a big size, but a small number of people. You can freely walk, go to shops or restaurants. As far as I know, the capacity of the terminal is around 25 million passengers per year. This is how Vnukovo Airport looks like from above :
Suddenly, we saw that our flight to Almaty is delayed by 30 minutes. But I was sure that any airplane can depart , for example, 1 hour late, and arrive at the destination about 20 minutes late of the scheduled time. It's because the scheduled time of the flight counted is usually more than the normal actual flight time.
Finally, we boarded our aircraft. Our aircraft was really old, it was Boeing 777-200, but it was 20 years old! It had a very small screen for each passenger, and a lot of armrests were broken! The seats were also stiff and uncomfortable.
We took off at around 11pm, totally with about 1 and a half hours delay. That didn't please me at all. I was nervous about getting to my school on time. But the calming-down thing was that the expected flight time is 3 hours and 40 minutes, so at least I would arrive at 5:40 am, go to my home, prepare to school quickly and go to school.
I expected myself to be sleeping all the flight, but that wasn't possible because of broken armrests, full plane, and uncomfortable seats. As soon as we took off, stewardess started to serve passengers with beverages and food. It took them ages to do it. There were only 2 stewardess serving each aisle. It took about an hour for them to serve us. But that wasn't the concern, though ; the stewardess were rude this time. Out of 12 cabin crew members, only 2 were polite and kind. Two of those stewardess with a tray just passed besides us, to another row to serve. We asked them about why did they ignore us, and they said "this is our technique of serving, the next stewardess will serve you" (there were another 2 stewardess coming in front with another trolley, but still about 10 rows ahead of us). We didn't liked it and said to them that we would liked to be served now and that this is not fear , and my mom asked politely : could you please give us water? Then the stewardess said to the other one which was close to us : "just give her water!" spitefully. I don't understand the purpose to fly and to be a stewardess, if you are not happy. In my own opinion, everyone should like their job and do it properly.
And, finally, I received my muslim meal, chicken with macaroni with an unpleasant sauce for the 4th time. How "diverse" is the food at Transaero. Then, I decided to have a little bit of sleep. As a result, I arrived home very tired at 5:40 am with a 30 minute delay, and slept for just an hour because of stewardess' long time serving of food (totally a little less than 2 hours).
The queue at Almaty Airport was long ; it's probably because our flight was about 90% full and it was Boeing 777-200. It took us about 55 minutes to disembark the aircraft, pass through customs, receive baggage, and go. I was on time to my school, fortunately.
So that's the story which I had faced. Conclusions : Transaero gets a rank of 4 out of 10 for the service including food, 7 out of 10 for aircraft, 7 out of 10 for the ticket cost and 6 out of 10 for the punctuality. I still didn't understand the purpose of changing an aircraft to Boeing 777 from Boeing 737 if there will delay occur then (When I was checking in 30-hours before departure, I already knew that it would be Boeing 777 which will take us from Moscow to Almaty).
But let's think - why and how - the service of Transaero became worse?
It's crisis and sanctions. It's the debt that Transaero had before the crisis, and its increase after crisis at the end 2014 - beginning 2015 appeared. All this leads up to Russian - Ukrainian conflict, or if precisely - to President Putin and President Poroshenko. Both of them make their own countries' economy worse and worse. Their braveness will not help them and the country as well, as you see. If the presidents would have lived in peace like they did before, then nothing serious would have happened.
Now, let's blame someone who IS actually guilty of the crisis in Ukraine and Russia.
But we have to consider both sides. Putin is violent because he brazenly took Crimea and added it to Russia, and I think he didn't even asked a permission of Ukraine to do so. But Poroshenko is not correct too - he could not straight away make Ukrainian as the only language in Ukraine in one day. Step by step, without any problems, he could have make it. He could have not supported the rebels at Euromaidan if he wants to be a good example for Ukraine.
To be honest, this crisis and sanctions toward Russia affected and affects Kazakhstan as well. It's mainly because Russia is the first country to which we trade, and we have a really close relationships ; we try to not to spoil our relationship with any of countries in this world.
But let's forget about politics. It's a really hard thing to talk about.
Here's what I think about Transaero's failure :
Over the years 2012-2014, Transaero's debt could have not disappeared. Russian economy started to decline from mid-2014. But 2015 crisis hit not only Russian economy, but also a lot of private companies and businesses like Transaero. International sanctions, the fall of ruble, restrictions of flying above Ukraine, all this made a negative impact for Transaero. By the March 2015, the airline had accumulated already around 1,25 billion USD of debt. This number began to raise and raise, until Aeroflot said that it will acquire 75% of Transaero, but then suddenly Aeroflot announced that it will leave the airline to bankruptcy.
Transaero announced its cease of all operations after 15 December 2015, and on 1 October, 2015 the sale of tickets had already closed. I think my chance to fly with them was one of the last ones, so I got a taste and sense of an airline which faces serious economical problems.
So that's how I saw a big difference of Transaero's service in 2014 and 2015. Do you have any suggestions or comments or questions? Feel free to ask them by emailing me
Thank you guys for reading! Please leave your thoughts below!
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26248275
http://data.worldbank.org/country/russian-federation
http://www.dni.ru/polit/2015/7/22/309964.html
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-per-capita
http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/russia
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