Review of Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Ashgabat in Business

Turkmenistan is one of the least visited countries of the world. The country was closed for several years due to Covid but borders were opened again in March 2023. I immediately applied for a letter of invitation for a visa through a local tour operator.

Very few airlines fly to Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan Airlines fly from Beijing (three times a week), Dubai (four times a week), Frankfurt (once a week), Istanbul (daily) and Moscow (six times a week). The airline cannot be booked on-line and is not in the international booking engines. Only three other airlines fly to the country: FlyDubai from Dubai (five times a week), S7 Airlines from Moscow (three times a week) and Turkish Airlines from Istanbul. The latter is by far the best option. Turkish has one daily flight that leaves Istanbul at 20.30, arrives to Ashgabat at 02.10, leaves again at 03.30 and gets back to Istanbul at 05.40. Not the best times but as there’s no real competition those who want to travel to or from Turkmenistan do not really have the choice.

Oslo has usually the cheapest fares in business class from Europe to Asia.

I arrived from Oslo to Istanbul at 16.25 and I had almost four hours before my connecting flight. I followed the signs to the lounge.  

Both Istanbul Airport and Turkish Airlines’ Business Class Lounge are among the best in Europe so I didn’t mind spending some time here.

You need to register to connect to the wifi in Turkey. Free wifi is available at the lounge. 

You see flowers and a giant screen as you enter the lounge.

A self-playing piano.

Luggage storage.

One of the seating areas.

Another seating area next to a food station.

Do you want to watch 12 TV channels at the same time?

Turkish Airlines is one of the main sponsors of the UEFA Champions League

A large model set.

A golf simulator.

A flight simulator.

Kids’ corner with a popcorn machine

Some of the food stations. 

Soft drinks.

Turkish tea.

Lemonade mint.

The departing flights board in Turkish and the language of the destination. I like that Istanbul Airport uses the destinations’ script (Arabic, Chinese, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean…) when different from the Latin script.

I went to the gate a bit early. 

Almost all passengers seemed to have a Turkmen passport.

Our plane was TC-JRT, first registered in July 2011. It has four rows of business class seats in a 2+2 configuration. The cabin looked older than on my previous flight from Oslo to Istanbul but the seats were nevertheless very comfortable.  

I had some mint lemonade as a welcome drink.

The menu card was distributed before take-off.

A small amenity kit was offered.  

Push-back was at 20.38 for a scheduled departure time of 20.30. We took off at 20.54 from runway 36.

A hot towel was offered shortly after take-off. 

Drink orders were taken 17 minutes after take-off (meal orders are always taken after you finish your appetizer). Dinner was served 25 minutes after take-off. Let’s have a look at the menu:

The salad, the cheese and the cake were served at the same time as the appetizer.

Classic prawn salad with cocktail sauce. I didn’t like it as it didn’t taste fresh.  

Külbasti fillet of veal. It was good but not very good.

The Tres de leches cake was good.

Dinner service was completed about 50 minutes after take-off. A pack of hazelnut was offered at this time.

The cabin crew was once again very professional, efficient and very friendly. They checked on the passengers several times if they needed anything.

We flew over the Black Sea just north of Turkey, then over Georgia and Azerbaijan. The night view of Baku: 

The shared overhead screen showed the plane’s position, heading, the local time in Istanbul and Ashgabat but the remaining time was always shown as 21 minutes. Strange.

We landed in Ashgabat at 02.11 and were at the gate at 02.18 for a scheduled arrival time of 02.30.

How to arrive to Ashgabat Airportas a tourist?
Your plane arrives to the gate (02:18)
Take a rapid Covid test (02:20)
Pay $31 (02:25)
Wait for the results inside the terminal (until 03:45)
You’ll be bussed with all other passengers to another gate in two minutes
Walk down a very long corridor
Queue for your visa
Pay $99 in cash for your visa
Get your visa (04:10)
Pass passport control (04:15)
Go through customs (there are about 30 customs officials in Soviet-looking uniforms) (04:20)
Show your passport to one of the soldiers in a similar uniform at the exit
And you’re already landside (04:25) 

The airport from the outside: 

The terminal is otherwise modern and very clean. I took this photo a few days later at departure.

My impressions of Turkmenistan

What do you think of when you hear about Turkmenistan?

Most people think of Turkmenbaşy, the extravagant former president-dictator who commisioned golden statues of himself and named cities after himself, his mother and his father. But Turkmenbaşy died 16 years ago. The next president was also a dictator but more moderate. The current president is his son. Turkmenbaşy’s golden statues have now been moved from downtown to less frequented places.

It’s often said that Turkmenistan is the second toughest dictatorship (=second least democratic country) in the world after North Korea. However it cannot be compared to North Korea. The government controls the people more through administration than by force; there’s plenty of private ownership (real estate, cars, companies); there’s no shortage of food; Turkmens are allowed to travel abroad (although passports are expensive and young men of conscription age are often removed from departing flights); smartphones and the Internet are widely available (but social media is blocked) and the standard of living is significantly higher.

Most Turkmens are much better off than any time earlier. The main struggles in their daily lives include extensive bureaucracy, corruption, rising food prices and government interference in every aspect of their day-to-day lives. People have no legal ways to challenge government decisions, there is no freedom of press and there are no free elections.

As foreigners we know what the regime is like but walking on the streets and looking at the people you cannot tell it is a dictatorship. The only unusual things are that there istraffic police at every other corner and there is an unusually high number of policemen, custom officers and soldiers at the airport. Their uniform looks Soviet but otherwise almost nothing else reminded me of the previous regime.

The huge gas and oil revenue of the past 20 or 30 years has been spent by the consecutive presidents in large part to rebuild Aşgabat, the capital city, from scratch. Everything has a monument. There are wide avenues and large parks well maintained by an army of gardeners but seldom used by the locals. Hundreds of extravagant government buildings, universities and sport facilities have been built, all clad with white marble. Thousands of new apartment buildings line the avenues. Around 90% of all our housing in the capital city seems to be in good condition from the outside. At the same time you’ll feel time has stopped in the 1980s when you see the houses in the villages.

Turkmenistan is one of the cleanest countries I’ve ever been to. There’s even less rubbish and greater cleanliness than in Switzerland.

The shops are full of products but there are no window displays. It's also strange that 90% of the cars are white. The most common car brands are Toyota, Lexus and Hyundai. You cannot see any damaged or dirty cars. There are not many luxury cars and sports cars are downright forbidden. There are only a few vehicles from the Soviet area, most of them trucks.

There are strong family, behaviour and dress codes in the society. Boys and men usually wear black pants, a white shirt with a black tie. Many women wear a green floral patterned dress and a headscarf that seems to be of Russian origin. Although the population is majority muslim there are very few mosques and extremely few people wear typical Muslim clothing.

As a tourist I had to ask for a letter of invitation from a local travel agency and I picked up my visa at the airport (I paid $99). This is not North Korea so you are free to walk in the city without your guide. Turkmenistan is the 120th fully independent country I’ve been to and the country where I saw the fewest tourists.

Is it worth travelling to Turkmenistan? Yes, as this country is like no other.

Ashgabat has been completely rebuilt since independence. A very typical avenue: 

The railway station with a photo of president Serdar Berdimuhamedow.

Schoolchidren leaving the National Museum of Turkmenistan.

Very few buildings remain from the Soviet area. This one has a typical Soviet mural.

Ashgabat is the city of extravagant monuments.

This monument was commissioned by former president Turkmenbaşy. It shows a bull holding the Earth which is partially destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake. A mother saves a boy from the rubbles. This boy, entirely made of gold, is nobody else but the one who became President Turkmenbaşy.

The same Turkmenbashi ordered the construction of Central Asia’s largest mosque which displays quotes from his book alongside with quotes from the Quran. 

The only old buildings are the ruins of Old Nisa, built between around 250 BC.

The supermarkets are full of products. There’s an especially huge choice of tea.

I saw this Mercedes with fake gold plates at a wedding in the countryside.

Old Soviet vehicles are quite rare nowadays.

The Darvaza natural gas crater in the Karakum desert in the middle of Turkmenistan.

Medical herbs market in a small village.

Hospitality is extremely important in Turkmenistan.