The Land of Fire
Hello and welcome to my final Flight Report of 2024!!
After an amazing week in Georgia, it's time to leave the country and head to its neighbor Azerbaijan. Despite the 2 countries sharing a substantial border, foreigners can't travel between the two by land (as of the making of this FR). There was a night train in the past but that was canceled during the pandemic and never restarted.
Luckily, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) offers a frequent service from Tbilisi with multiple flights a day and a semi-regular schedule from Batumi (a couple of times a week). Batumi is a popular tourist destination known for its beaches. The city first drew my attention when I was browsing through Airbnb and noticed its ridiculously cheap accommodation prices (around €20 a night in a brand new apartment). It seemed kinda sketchy given the low price and lack of reviews, which is why I avoided it for this trip.
I, like everyone, am deeply saddened by the recent accident involving an AZAL E190, condolences to the families of those affected and wishing a speedy recovery for the survivors.
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3Azerbaijan Airlines | Economy | Batumi (BUS) → Baku (GYD) | Embraer E190
- 4
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.
Batumi Airport (BUS)
We'll kick off this FR outside in the drop-off area. The airport is around 20 minutes away from the city by car and is served by buses.

Here's the (very crowded) check-in area. That crowd on the left is for an Israir flight to Tel Aviv (TLV), which is expected for a flight to Israel given its thorough and tedious check-in process involving a full 30-minute interview (see my El Al FR for more details). That flight is departing around 4 hours from now, barely enough time for them to process every passenger.

Luckily, check-in for our flight only took 10 minutes. You don't know how weird it is not to be questioned about why I'm taking this flight, it felt almost illegal haha.
Security took a further 5 minutes. While the process may be fast, I must mention how rude the staff are. It's almost as if they're getting paid by how many passengers they screen per hour. I asked if I could bring my water bottle through - a very sensible question considering it's not allowed in most airports. They looked at me as if I was stupid, took my bag and bottle before chucking it into the scanner, and ushered me to the metal detector. Like, in most airports I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're just stressed, but this is a tiny airport with 2 other people behind me…
Anyway, here are the gates.

There's a total of one (very crowded) restaurant and one (somewhat crowded) duty-free store. I highly recommend getting some food in the city before coming here.

Here's our plane arriving from Baku.

And here she is at the gate in the AZAL livery. The livery is in the top 10 of my favorite liveries (although people have told me I have weird taste). Some of my favorites include American Airlines, Aerolineas Argentinas, and (to the absolute horror of everyone) the new Brussels Airlines livery.

The Flight
Flight time to Baku will only be an hour and here's our route.

Boarding started on time and here's an even better photo of our plane.

Some information about our plane:
Type: Embraer E190
Registration: VP-BRV
First flight: 4 August 2017
Age: ~7 years
Config: Y106
Originally delivered to Buta Airways (the low-cost subsidiary of AZAL), she was transferred to the parent airline in June 2023.
Photo of the cabin

Amazingly, I feel like most of the seats have a proper window. While this is quite normal on most planes, the Embraer Ejets are known for their misaligned windows (look at that massive gap between windows!) See my Porter review for example.
Photo of the seatback pocket and tray table.

The legroom is amazing for a regional jet.

First views out of the window.

Pushback on time.

Bye bye, Georgia!

Reaching our cruising altitude.

The Caucasus mountains can be seen in the distance. I took a day trip into the mountains and it was gorgeous.


Shortly after, the crew came around with a quick snack. It's a chicken salad sandwich with pineapple juice, pretty standard for a short-haul flight outside Europe.

Crossing the border into Azerbaijan.

It may be a short flight but the scenery is amazing.

Another photo of the Caucasus mountains - but in Azerbaijan this time.

Starting our descent into Baku.

Nice views of the city on final approach.


Welcome to Baku! We arrived… 35 minutes early?!

On the right, you can see the entirety of AZAL's A340-500 fleet (2). AZAL was the world's last airline to operate the type however as of the making of this FR, they're stored there to be retired in 2025.

View of Terminal 1, the main international terminal.

We'll be parking in Terminal 2, which is smaller and older than T1.

Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)
The walk to immigration took literally 30 seconds - I didn't even get a chance to photograph it haha.
Here's the baggage reclaim area.

It took around 10 minutes for my bag to arrive… on the wrong belt. But anyway, here's the arrivals area landside. You tell this is the smaller of the 2 terminals - this area is rather empty. Our flight was only one of two arrivals this hour (the other was a flight from Russia).

Walking to the exit.

A split-flap board showing the arrivals!! I love their look and sound although they're very scarce these days.

I've never heard of Astrakhan so I Googled it. The city is 25m (82ft) below sea level, which is pretty cool.
Also, did you know that the Caspian Sea is 27m (90ft) below sea level? (It's technically a lake.)
I'll end the FR here. I'm staying in Baku for a few days before leaving, which will be my next FR. Thanks for reading and I'll see you there!
P.S. Feel free to check out the tourism bonus of Batumi below! ;)
Liaaaa..... You were so close!!! 😭😭😭 Thank goodness you're OK
Yeah, just a few months difference. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the news on Christmas day, such a tragic accident.
Thanks for reading.
French citizens are now urged to NOT visit Azerbaijan, as that country is seriously at odds with France (for being close friends with Armenia) and has joined the infamous club of countries sending some visitors to prison as future bargaining chips. I got the message loud and clear and cancelled at any cost, literally, a couple months ago.
Therefore, thanks for the review of an airline that I am sadly unlikely to try anytime soon, and I'm looking forward to the tourism bonus of the next flight !
PS : I too like AZAL's livery 😉
Hey marathon,
Oh dear, that's worrying. As far as I know, there's been no mentions of that in the UK so I don't know how bad it is.
Don't blame ya, I would've done the same had the UK issued a similar warning.
Thanks for reading, I'll be sure to include a tourism bonus in my next FR.