Monday, July 20, 2015

Flying the Belavia Boeing 737-300

After a long day spotting I had to quickly get to the airport to catch my flight to Minsk.

27 May 2015
B2896 (1505-1715) WAW-MSQ
EW-407PA B733

I needed to get somehow to Minsk for my flight to Geneva on board the Tupolev 154 so I decided to fly earlier and take the chance to visit the city aswell. The T154 was on Friday, I arrived in Minsk on Wednesday on a Belavia Boeing 737-300 registered as EW-407PA. The plane first took flight in 1996.
First, at the airport, waiting for my flight I made a couple of pictures through the glass walls, as usual. It just is something I do before most of my flights. Boarding was smooth and rather without any special problems. A quick pushback after making sure that everyone is on board and we taxied to runway 29 beside many unusual liveries for Warsaw (they arrived for the UEFA Europa League Final) and departed without stopping and after a couple of turns we directed ourselves north-east towards Belarus. Sometime during the flight service was started. Well, let's say so. Drinks: tea/coffee and a small chocolate was everything in Economy. As a matter of fact I did hope for more. Luckily I ate a snack before the flight so I didn't have to starve.
A regular landing in Minsk. Just nice to see some very eastern planes, the Il76, T154, T134s and more, not forgetting about a cargo 747. Deboarding, bus transfer to the terminal and a quick immigration control. Welcome to Belarus. My bag has arrived after just a couple of minutes and I could proceed for the bus that would take me to the train station where I did catch a train to the city and made to my sleeping place.
To sum up Belavia, a rather regular airline with little arguments to convince fliers to fly them (especially when talking about western people). The fleet is in fact being renewed, but everything else connected with the flight is rather poor. I had no problems with the crew. The catering (I know it was a short flight, but my next flight MSQ-GVA was much longer and had a "meal") is poorish. The only things that would make me choose B2 over, lets say LO is either a big price difference or a better schedule.

Enter Air waiting for the next flight
One of the holiday charters. Corendon. TC-TJJ
SP-LRC
Taxiing has commenced.
EC-LAV
EC-LQX
SP-HAC
EC-JAP
















MSQ overview with a Air China A332 visible

Waiting for my bag




My next flight on Belavia on the Tupolev 154.



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