Avis du vol entre Yerevan et Tbilisi en classe Economique avec Tbilisi Airways

Introduction

This is the fourth flight of a trip to Georgia and Armenia, which was made complicated by the fact that:
- the initial project included going to Azerbaijan as well
- relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are complicated
- relations between France and Azerbaijan have become complicated
Hence this routing, the genesis of which is described in the introduction to the FR of the CDG-AMS flight (to be read, read again and commented upon, of course! :) :

I described in the previous FR in detail the options to avoid selecting by mistake, or surreptitiously selected by default and to be unticked "somewhere" on the screen when you buy a ticket from FlyOne Armenia (which chartered the flight to Tbilisi Airways).

When you check in online, it's no better, because FlyOne was careful to not remind me that I had already paid for a piece of chegged luggage.
You never know, maybe I could have paid for it again, believing that I had forgotten to do so in the first place!

And of course, FlyOne offered to insure it (for €4) and deliver it as a priority (for €5), which, as we will see, would not have changed anything upon arrival at TBS.

The plane was again a 23-row aircraft (from 1 to 24, without row 13), therefore the same 737-300 as at the inbound flight

… and FlyOne of course tried to make me pay to select my seat. It was going to be a short night flight: no thanks.

And while we’re at it, FlyOne offered me to pay to be notified in priority of any schedule changes, to be compensated in case of delay and to bring a pet (offered by our Armenian friends??).

Online check-in was free from 7 days before flight, with random seat assignment unless you paid. At STD-24 hours, the choice of seat became free… among the remaining seats)

So I checked in online without spending a penny at D-7. (I nevertheless received the announcement again at STD-24h that online check-in was open.)

Anyway, here we are checked in online, and punished by FlyOne for not having paid for our seat selection: this time, it’s an aisle seat and a middle seat two rows apart for the Marathons.
The deal between us is that I preempt the window seat if there is one, and that my wife chooses first otherwise. It would therefore be the middle seat for me.

EVN landside

We were dropped off at EVN by our friend, where what dominates is not the control tower, neither in the foreground, nor in the background on the right.

In the background, it was the terminal,

… but on the right is the old control tower, overlooking the old terminal. Here they are from the sidewalk of the access ramp to the Departures level of the terminal.

The condition of the windows and of the formerly illuminated signage betray its decommissioning a long time ago

The terminal is no better condition: there has not been any passenger there for nearly 20 years. Being in a secure airport zone, urban exploration must be reserved for a happy few!

Four planes with faded and mismatched liveries are parked at the foot of this abandoned terminal.

This was the entire fleet of the defunct Atlantis Armenian Airways (three A320ceos and one 737-500), which lost its license in August 2020. The EU’s blacklisting of all airlines certified in Armenia in June 2020 was probably the final nail in the coffin.

The new terminal, opened in 2006, looked great

Departures Level

Bilingual Armenian - English signage

A restored work by painter Minas Avetisyan (1928 – 1975) dominates the hall on the Departures level. Described as a "cursed painter", his probable assassination by the KGB was disguised as a traffic accident, and the 1988 earthquake destroyed the buildings decorated with his frescoes and his house turned into a museum.

Landside views

FIDS alternating between these two languages

Checking in for our flight had just opened (at STD-3h)

This was it

The line was reasonably long

The Marathons’ suitcase had taken on 3.5 kilos since the previous flight, revealing the unbalance of the Franco-Armenian exchange of gifts.

Our hand luggage complied with the weight and size limits (3F is said to be picky about this), and was labeled as such.
The wording suggests that the tiny maximum size (40 x 30 x 20 cm) would be a safety and comfort constraint. Gee, what do you think about the safety of the flights on legacy airlines like AF which accept 55 x 35 x 25 cm?

We received vintage-style BPs, of which the larger part on the left was going to be removed at the boarding gate. There was no hint that the flight was going to be operated by a Tbilisi Airways aircraft.

To go airside, it's here

EVN airside

Eight minutes later, after the security check and the border control, we were through these duty-free shops

… to arrive airside, with a very simple configuration: the doors boarding gates and the rows of seats for waiting passengers on the windows side, and duty-free shops on the other side of a wide corridor

A remembrance of the Covid era, when you had neded to have an empty seat between yourself and your next neighbor

A few electrical outlets at the ends of the rows of seats on the window side, only in the vicinity of the first boarding gates.

Arrival at the gate of our plane coming from TBS

Ready for deplaning

Boarding: the cabin of the 737-300 Tbilisi Airways

Boarding started

… without haste

On the right, EK-AAD, an Armenian Airlines A321ceo

Confirmation of 4L-TBA’s registration number

Door shot

Fuselage shot

The vintage seats of this all economy class cabin

Reaching my seat

The seats across the aisle – few passengers had boarded yet.

The seat pitch was not as generous as measured at the way in, but it was nevertheless in the better half of the range in Economy for short / medium haul flights

The backrests reclined about 9°

No surprise: the width between armrests is less in a 737 than in an A32x

Vintage PSU

Linguistic trace of the operation of this aircraft by Boliviana de Aviacion

Seat Change

In the meantime, PAX21D and PAX21F had boarded. I was keeping a close eye on the end of boarding (towards the front) and on the state of the last rows (towards the back). Mrs. PAX21D understood my maneuver very well, and as soon as boarding was over, offered me to get up and let me move to the back of the aircraft.
It was a win-win deal that I could not refuse! I migrated to Row 24 (the last one in the rear of the plane)…

… where the right half-row was empty.
Mrs. Marathon was not as attentive and responsive, and had a bad deal on this flight: PAX19B, her neighbor, turned out to be both badly overweight and noisy.

I did not have a perfect seat change either, because two passengers migrated to the aisle seats in row 24, and chatted in a quite noisy manner. Still, the middle seat between us was going to remain unoccupied.

View of the cabin from my seat

The other downside of this seat in the last row was that it could not recline, but that did not matter on a very short flight

The safety sheet, both sides

Granted, you must leave all your personal belongings on board in case of emergency evacuation . But is it really reasonable to leave your glasses behind too? This is the kind of situation where I would rather see things clearly!

Pushback at 20:47

The tip of the the wing of this 737 had a white light which was permanently lit, making it difficult to take pictures on that night flight.

Takeoff from runway 26

Short night flight

The terminal, seen during takeoff

We were almost vertically above the Temple of Zvarnots

Night cityscape of Yerevan

The most illuminated street is Gusan Sheram Street, roughly parallel to the M1 road on its left. In the the upper right of the photo, the bright spot surrounded by darkness is EVN. The long dark spot at the top of the photo is Erebuni Airport (UDYE), where one of the two Russian air bases in Armenia is located, supposedly protecting the country from Turkish and Azerbaijani ambitions.

Yerevan by night

Descent to TBS: here is a detail of the northern districts of Tbilisi

… which are rather better at night (seen from the plane) than during the day (seen from the Chronicles of Georgia hill)

The illuminated structure towards the back, in the center, is a shopping mall located along Zurab Pataradze Street. The dark area at the bottom right of the photo is the southern end of Lake Tbilisi, a man-made reservoir dating back to the Soviet era.

This is what it looks like in daytime

The S5 highway, connecting TBS to the city

This is it in daylight: the omnipresent billboards were electoral propaganda, this one for an opposition party, because the legislative elections were going to take place shortly (on October 26).

Arrival at TBS

Landing at TBS

Deplaning

Fuselage shot

The almost entire 737

Parked next to it, the two 737s of Georgian Wings

And further away, the tail fins of aircraft from Georgia Airways (Georgia), Air Astana (Kazakhstan), Azimuth Airlines and Red Wings (Russia), and finally EP-FSK, a 33-year old Sepehran Airlines 737-500.

Four Georgia Airways aircraft in a remote parking stand

… and the entire fleet of Camex Airlines (two 737-800)

The first PAXbus had left, but the second PAXbus was lingering there, while at the foot of the plane, the tone was seriously rising between a PAX and an employee.

The arrival of a VIP van explained the situation: the PAX has bought a VIP welcome, the van was not there when she got off the plane, and there was no way she was going to reach the immigration after the rank and file passengers already waiting standing in the PAXbus.

We were finally off

Sukhoi Super Jet Azimuth Airlines

CZ used a 737 for their TBS-URC flight this evening instead of a 787

RA-89184, a Sukhoi SuperJet 100 Red Wings

It was almost 10pm when we reached the immigration, where the line was long and progress was slow. The good news was that we arrived just before the passengers of an Iraqi Airways flight who might take even longer to go through immigration.

A solid half hour later, we were overlooking the luggage claim hall, with a serious logjam here.

Our luggage was already waiting for us on conveyor belt no. 2

All that remained was to pick up our rental car from one of the rental companies at the far end of the Arrivals terminal – it was going be quicker than when we first arrived here a week earlier.

Thanks for reading!

Bonus: A glimpse of northern Armenia

I now offer you a bonus on Armenia yesterday and today