Review of Turkmenistan Airlines flight from Milan to Ashgabat in Economy

Secluded and Mysterious

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!

This is the first of 6 FRs from my summer trip to Thailand and will cover the flight from Milan to Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, on the country's flag carrier. I've always wanted to fly Turkmenistan Airlines after seeing them at London Gatwick last year on my trip to Turkey, so I got super lucky finding cheap flights with them from Milan to Bangkok. The airline currently operates a fleet of 12 Boeing 737s and 4 Boeing 777s, consisting of 2 -200LRs and 2 -300ERs. Turkmenistan is one of the most restrictive countries in the world with harsh internet restrictions and strict entry requirements (tourists are required to have a guide for most of their time in the country). The country is often called the 'North Korea of Central Asia'. However, for passengers transiting through the country, no visa is required.

Interestingly, unlike any other airline I've booked on, you can't actually book tickets directly on Turkmenistan's website. Instead, you fill out a form with your information and the flight and date you're looking for, and the website sends an email to the airline's reservation department (reservations@turkmenistanairlines.eu). They will then email you back with a link to pay and generate your e-ticket for you once that is done. It does seem a bit sketchy at first, especially the link that they send you, but it is 100% legit. Unfortunately, because of this, online check-in isn't available. 

As for price, I paid €300 ($350) for a single flying MXP-ASB-BKK, which is a pretty decent price. Included with the price are 2 20kg bags per person, which is amazing. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)

You join me on the Frecciarossa from Rimini to Milan. Without realizing it, I actually booked this flight on the same date as the F1 Italian Grand Prix in nearby Monza. Because of this, all the hotels in Milan were either booked up or were charging insane prices. Instead, I opted to head to Rimini and use this opportunity to visit San Marino (check out the tourism bonus below!). 

This is Business class on the Frecciarossa 700. It was only €10 more than standard, which was totally worth it. 

Here we are at Milano Centrale station!

Outside the station. This is my fifth time in Milan following three transit stops and one time being stuck here for almost a week (thanks Aeroitalia!).

2nd train of the day heading to Malpensa Airport. The trip takes around an hour.

Welcome to Malpensa Terminal 1. This is where all flights except EasyJet depart from. (EasyJet uses T2, also accessible by train).

Heading to departures past a Sixt with a huge queue.

And here's the check-in area. 

An amazing view of the apron with a British Airways A320 heading to London (LHR) and an Air Cairo A320neo heading to Cairo (CAI).

An American Boeing 777 heading to New York (JFK) and a 787 heading to Philadelphia (PHL) in the back. 

There's also a food court upstairs with some Italian restaurants and a McDonald's. 

And here's our plane arriving from Ashgabat (ASB). 

Despite saying in the email that check-in opens 4 hours before departure, it only opened around 3 hours before. It wasn't a huge issue (other than having to find a way to kill an hour at the airport), and I was able to request a window seat for both legs. Security took another 5 minutes.

Here's the duty-free area that all passengers have to walk through. 

Passing through more shops on the way to the non-Schengen B gates. 

And here are the gates.

Another photo of the apron, this time much closer with a Turkish A321neo that just arrived from Istanbul (IST). 

As you can see in the picture, the area is packed - although having two Emirates A380s here doesn't help (Emirates flies Dubai-Milan-New York, so one A380 is heading to New York, and the other one is heading to Dubai). 

The flight

Flight time to Ashgabat will be around 5 hours and 15 minutes and here's our route: 

Geographically speaking, Ashgabat is (almost) perfectly on the great circle route between Southern Europe and Thailand, meaning no detour required! 

Another photo of our plane at our gate. Fun fact: this is the same gate I departed from on my Saudia flight to Jeddah. 

Some information about our plane:

Type: Boeing 737-800
Registration: EZ-A019
First flight: 26 January 2017
Age: ~9 years
Config: C16/Y144

A standard-issue Boeing 737 that is one of Turkmenistan's 8 737-800s (along with 4 737-700s). 

Quick photo of the empty business cabin. 

And here's the economy cabin.

Tray table and seatback pocket. The flight was around 40% full. The crew blocked off the last 3 rows, so they asked me to move forward to one of the (many) empty rows ahead. I found out later that this was a training flight for a few new cabin crews, they occupied those back rows during takeoff/landing. 

Legroom is pretty good. 

First view out of the window with a Red Sea Airlines Boeing 737-800 that just arrived from Sharm el-Sheikh (SSH), Egypt. 

Very old-school looking headphone jack and media player on the armrest. Looks like something from the early 2000s haha. 

Pushback 38 minutes late. Unfortunately, the A/C wasn't turned on during the delay. Now, Milan in September isn't particularly hot, but it still reached over 30°C in the cabin, which was rather unpleasant. 

Takeoff! Bye bye Europe! 

Nice views of the suburbs as we turn East towards the Balkans. 

Let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket. It included a guide on the onboard Wi-Fi. I was surprised Turkmenistan offered Wi-Fi onboard… except it wasn't working on this flight. ;(

The safety card.

And an inflight magazine! It's not often you get an inflight magazine these days. 

Over the Adriatic Sea…

… and later the coast of Croatia. 

Shortly after, the crew came around with dinner. 

And here it is. Yes, the container is comically large haha. The options were chicken or beef. I picked the former. It was roasted chicken with tomato sauce, spaghetti, and beans. And yes, it did taste as bland as it looked. There was no flavoring at all on the spaghetti, and almost no flavoring on the chicken aside from the tomatoes. Even adding the salt and pepper pouch, it was pretty bad. 

And here's what's in the box underneath. This is a lot of food, so I'll list it from left to right. It included a slice of almond bread, peach juice, a bun, a cake (under the bun), cherry tomatoes, an apple-jam biscuit (see picture below), an apple candy, a container of meat and cheese with crackers, and an assortment of condiments including ketchup, mayonnaise, honey, butter, and milk. This is the most food I've ever seen crammed in a box like this. There's no way most people can finish all of this. 

This is the biscuit. It's technically 2 biscuits sandwiched between some apple jam. I've never had anything like it and it's quite weird. (I've never seen apple jam before this haha). 

Sunset over Turkey.

Oh, and this is what's on the cups. It looks to be something to do with Turkmenistan (duh…) and the UN?? Not too sure. 

Shortly before landing, the crew came around with another snack. I've gotten so much food on this flight it's pretty incredible. 

And here it is. It's just two small pieces of a cheese sandwich. It's not a lot, but it was way more than what I expected for a 5-hour flight. 

Descending into Ashgabat. 

On final approach. 

Wow, that's an interesting mosque down there… shame I couldn't get a good photo of it. 

Welcome to Turkmenistan! Because of our late departure, we arrived 30 minutes late. 

Parked next to another Turkmenistan Boeing 737-800. You can also see a China Southern Boeing 737-800 heading to Ürümqi, Xinjiang (URC). China Southern uses URC as a hub for flights to/from Central Asia. There's also a Turkmenistan Boeing 777-300ER heading to Beijing (PEK) behind. 

Ashgabat International Airport (ASB)

Wow! First impressions of the airport look amazing! I did not expect to find myself in such a fancy looking hallway haha. 

This terminal opened in 2016, and it's honestly one of the fanciest/most aesthetically pleasing airports I've been to. 

A more in-depth look at the airport will come in my 2nd FR, where I'll be continuing my journey to Thailand. Thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you there! ;)

P.S. Feel free to check out the tourism bonus from my time in Italy/San Marino