During my Four Seasons Yacht via Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia adventure, I had a layover of a few hours at Ashgabat Airport (ASB), in Turkmenistan. I was arriving in Turkmenistan Airlines’ 777 business class from Frankfurt (FRA), and was connecting to Turkmenistan Airlines’ 737 business class to Delhi (DEL).
I’ve already written about the airport in general, as this had to be among my strangest transit experiences ever. This is a massive airport that’s nowhere close to capacity, and sometimes it feels like the airport has more guards standing around than passengers.
In this post, I’d like to review the Business Lounge Ashgabat, which is the airport’s only lounge that’s currently open (there’s actually a second lounge that’s built, but it appears to be shut, I guess because there’s no demand for it).
This lounge is… not bad? It has some food and non-alcoholic drinks, and it also offers access to Wi-Fi (unlike the rest of the airport), though it feels more like a hotel lobby than an airport lounge, which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
In this post:
Business Lounge Ashgabat location
Upon landing in Ashgabat, I first had to clear transit security, which was a strange experience. There were metal detectors and x-rays, and while the security checkpoint was staffed, nobody actually seemed to be verifying anything — everyone simply walked through the metal detectors, and when they beeped, nothing was done.
Once through transit security, just take the escalator down to the main terminal level, and then you’ll find the lounge nearby. It’s located to the right, and up a set of escalators.
Let me emphasize that if you follow some of the signage, you’d be led to believe that there’s also a lounge at the very far end of the terminal in the other direction, and that’s where I initially headed (since I missed the sign for the lounge near the transit security checkpoint).
When you get to the far end of the terminal, you’ll also see escalators leading up a level.
There is indeed a second lounge there, and the lights inside are on, but it otherwise seems to be fully unoccupied.
For that matter, the entire upper level seems to be empty — there’s also an internet cafe, but it’s just an empty room without computers.
Business Lounge Ashgabat hours
The Business Lounge Ashgabat doesn’t have published hours. I’d assume it’s open 24/7, or at least prior to any flight’s departure.
Business Lounge Ashgabat entry requirements
The Business Lounge Ashgabat acts as the primary lounge at the airport. So if you’re a premium passenger, you should have access to the lounge. For flagship Turkmenistan Airlines, business class passengers get lounge access in Ashgabat, but not at outstations.
Beyond Turkmenistan Airlines, the airport is served by Turkish Airlines, FlyDubai, China Southern, and S7 Airlines, so I’d assume premium passengers on those airlines also get access to the lounge.
Rather inexplicably, the lounge doesn’t belong to Priority Pass, which makes no sense to me, since the lounge doesn’t really fill up. I’m not sure if this is simply due to challenges with foreign payments in Turkmenistan, or what, but that seems like a missed opportunity.
Business Lounge Ashgabat seating & layout
Arriving at the Business Lounge Ashgabat is quite the experience. As I arrived at the lounge, the desk was unattended, though there was a speaker loudly blasting what I can only describe as club music. Not exactly the vibe you’re expecting when arriving at a lounge at 4AM… or maybe it is?!
Within a minute the lounge employee showed up, glanced at my boarding pass, and admitted me.
The lounge is a good size given the limited demand, and it really feels more like a hotel lobby than an airport lounge. There’s a surprising amount of detail when it comes to the design of the lounge, which kind of matches the airport overall.
There are a few hallways connecting the various parts of the lounge, and these areas particularly feel like something you’d find in a hotel.
The main part of the lounge is a triangular space of sorts, with little clusters of seating, mostly with four chairs arranged around coffee tables.
The room continues beyond the triangular seating area, though the furniture is largely the same.
In terms of amenities, the lounge also had a separate room with a pool table, which was in use the entire time I was there.
There was also a smoking room in the back of the lounge, by the bathrooms.
All-in-all, it’s not a bad lounge!
Business Lounge Ashgabat Wi-Fi
Turkmenistan is known for its limited internet access (as the government closely controls it). Before my visit, I had heard that there’s basically no Wi-Fi at the airport, including in the lounge. So I was pleasantly surprised, as I could connect, but there were some limitations.
The first thing worth noting is that outside the lounge, there’s no easy opportunity to get Wi-Fi, as connecting to the network requires having a local phone number.
In the lounge there was a Wi-Fi network, so it was possible to connect without a local phone number. The thing to understand is that many sites from outside of Turkmenistan are blocked, and the mainstream VPNs are blocked as well. So on the plus side, I was able to send messages through iMessage, could visit my blog, etc. But I couldn’t check email, for example.
While T-Mobile allows free roaming in a vast majority of countries, Turkmenistan isn’t one of those eligible countries, unsurprisingly.
Business Lounge Ashgabat food & drinks
The Business Lounge Ashgabat has a selection of self-service food and non-alcoholic drinks, which are all located along the wall in the back of the lounge. There was no labeling for any of the food, but it looked decent, for the most part… like, it was more interesting than just cubed cheese.
The food selection included an impressive number of dishes, with everything essentially being Saran wrapped. I couldn’t help but wonder how long some of the food had been sitting out, given the limited traffic in the lounge.
Also, is that… caviar?!
Hot options included fried eggs, sausage, some sort of pizza, french toast, and two goopy substances (I’m guessing one was oatmeal, but I’m not sure about the other one).
There was also a fridge with a couple of types of cake.
Drink options included a variety of bottled soft drinks and water, tea, and then a coffee machine.
I tried to serve myself coffee, but the lounge attendant quickly came over to help me, and insisted on preparing it for me. I must say, it was actually a surprisingly great coffee, in contrast to the coffee quality onboard!
Speaking of the lounge attendant, I found it interesting how she essentially “stationed” herself at a table near the buffet (while enjoying a coffee herself), and then she’d just walk to the front desk when anyone arrived.
Business Lounge Ashgabat bathrooms
The Business Lounge Ashgabat has bathrooms down a hall in the back corner of the lounge, near the smoking room.
The men’s room had a few sinks, stalls, and urinals, and was reasonably clean.
Bottom line
Ashgabat Airport is a bizarre place, and the Business Lounge sort of matches the overall vibe. The lounge was a good size and quite empty, and felt more like a hotel lobby than an airport lounge. The lounge has somewhat functioning Wi-Fi (unlike the rest of the airport), and offers an okay selection of food and non-alcoholic drinks.
I was happy to just get some Wi-Fi and a decent cup of coffee. The dining in the airport is otherwise limited, so you probably won’t do much better dining outside the lounge (and that says nothing about the lack of foreign credit card acceptance throughout the airport).
What’s your take on the Business Lounge Ashgabat?
So, what kind of visa requirements are there for US passport holders going FRA-DEL?
@ mkleiderman -- You can transit airside at ASB without a visa, so I just needed my standard visa for India (I recently got a five year one). If you want to actually enter Turkmenistan, that becomes MUCH more complicated...
I posted this on the SWISS blog entry last week, but I'm posting it again, as some may find this workaround helpful:
Try logging out via the icon on the upper right of the screen, and then logging back in. You may need to do it for each new session.
For those trying to use the "Yowsers" and "Helpful" functionality, this should help ameliorate the problem in the short run.
Thanks for the hack. I'm hoping to release a fix for this shortly - it's taken a bit longer than I had expected. We'll get a post up to let everyone know when it is fixed. There's a small bundle of other quality-of-life changes going out at the same time.
@Ben - I still can't make "helpful" button to work. I was absent for some days, have just read the articles of last week, tried to like some comments, still does not work... :-(
@ Likes-to-fly -- Sorry for the issues with that, it's something we're actively working on fixing, and we should have a solution soon. I promise we're on top of this. We've had to make lots of tech updates in the past couple of weeks, and while things have mostly gone smooth, every once in a while something breaks in an unexpected way.
Good grief, is green their national color?
That airport looks like it's something from Dr. Seuss on LSD.
I’ve been there on my way to Bangkok and I remember it as one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had during my trips
Ben, you had me at "goopy substances"... thanks for a most unique lounge review!
(Ashga-what'd you call me?)
I'm guessing the other goopy substance is something in the polenta/grits/mamaliga family.... I hope
friend, all we have is hope... LOL.