Cool: Kyrgyzstan's Air Manas Acquires Airbus A220

I was supposed to fly them Urumqi-Bishkek but that never happened because I changed my plans. (And I also cancelled because Kyrgyz airlines are banned from flying to the EU)

Turns out the flight never actually operated (this was August 2018) and I lucked out because I still got my money back.

I flew Avia Traffic in 2014 FRU-OSS. The plane was I think a 737-200, there was no safety briefing or inflight service, and baggage claim in OSS was a free for all off of a truck's flat bed... This looks to be an improvement for the Kyrgyzstan domestic market.

Very excited to see the next generation of aircraft proliferate!

Nice to see they have a comeback plan. They were the most reliable on the FRU-OSS route, especially when they were the only IOSA-certified Kyrgyz airline. At the end, they operated 4x daily FRU-OSS with their single 734. And since the opening of the new terminal at OSS, it really wasn't a bad experience.

That said, it's a tough market. Lots of domestic competition, weather is an issue at FRU with fog/smog, and the runway at FRU is in really bad shape and needs to be reconstructed. So many Kyrgyz carriers have come and gone.

International isn't much better. Avia Traffic Company has cornered the ex-KG VFR market, and SU, TK, FZ, KC and S7 take most of the rest. It doesn't help that ALA is a 4 hour drive from Bishkek, and is a much larger market, so pulls quite a bit of traffic from FRU as well.

And yes, the infamous ULN-FRU route on TK was a special one. It was fun to take, but also suffered from massive delays far too often.

I flew Air Manas in 2017, FRU-OSS. Bog standard former Pegasus 737, packed full of customers but, all in all, nothing memorable. The funny thing to see was that, although they had web check-in, they had to weigh your backpack and check your documents even if you were on Hand Baggage only... and the queue for check-in would open up like the Red Sea if anyone elderly or a family with children arrived. Super civilised.

Kyrgyzstan is a lovely country. There isn’t much in terms of super fancy hotels but I think that it’s actually an added value... it’s the kind of place where you can hitch-hike for hundreds of kms and people will refuse a tip. And nature is gorgeous.

The 'stans are incredibly important in geopolitical history owing to their location on the Silk Road. I would love to visit Almaty, Samarkand, etc. at some point.

Spent way too many nights living in a modified shipping container on the backside of Manas International while serving in the Air Force. The airport has had its fair share of hull losses in the last two decades or so. Let’s just say that their ATC has not been to western standards.

Since we're on the subject, it might be a good time to review the airlines serving Krapyzstan and Elbonia.

Wow, this is awesome. I got to fly them from OSS-FRU in October 2019 on their sole 737-400 (ex-Pegasus). Was a little nerve-racking since their single aircraft was out of service for an entire week for MX but the short flight over the mountains was incredible.

EX-22002 previously was VP-BMU and owned by GTLK. They have 5 A220-300s more that were due to be for Red Wings but not taken up. It's currently stored in MST and it's in an all white livery for now. I hope SWISS complains about the livery because it is a copy of theirs.

Wondering what will happen to the other five A220s.

This airline and the airport are named after the (probably fictional) person named Manas who is the subject of an epic poem that is 100s of thousands lines long. If you attend and ceremonies you may get to hear an ak-cekal (means 'white beard', an old guy) recite many lines of the poem. They have competitions where people recite it and win based on a combination of number of lines and their performance. At school events little kids will recite it which is adorable. Domestic flying in Kyrgyzstan is interesting but not very pleasant and I don't think a new jet will change much.