I just had the chance to fly Turkmenistan Airlines, fulfilling a dream I’ve had for years (isn’t it everyone’s dream?!). I already shared some thoughts on my Turkmenistan Airlines 777 business class flight, and now I’d like to talk about my experience transiting Ashgabat International Airport (ASB).
I’ve heard people say it’s the world’s strangest airport, and I can confirm that — it’s definitely the most unusual airport I’ve ever been to! The airport feels like it’s designed to accommodate 10x the amount of traffic it actually gets, and for much of the day, I imagine there are more guards just randomly standing around than passengers.
In this post:
Transiting Ashgabat Airport is delightfully strange
I landed in Ashgabat Airport at 3:40AM, which is rush hour at the airport, with roughly three flights arriving around the same time, so it was about as slammed as the airport gets. Well, the airport still looked like the below — it was a ghost town!
There was transit security, which required walking through an x-ray and having your bags scanned. However, there was no one actually staffing the x-ray, so everyone just walked through as the x-ray beeped, and nothing was done. So that seems… umm… kind of pointless, no?
There was a small group in front of me in line traveling from London Gatwick (LGW) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL), and one of the guys said “I thought we were connecting in Istanbul.” Oy. I wonder how common of a mistake that is, where people book a ticket thinking they’re flying Turkish Airlines, and not Turkmenistan Airlines.
The airport’s main terminal area is along one long corridor. The airport is super shiny and bright, but there’s not much beneath the surface. There are a few duty free shops and cafes (only some of which are open), though don’t expect any big brands.
Upon arrival I followed the signage toward the business class lounge, which required walking to the far end of the terminal.
I took the escalator upstairs, and it looked like this is where all the action was — the business class lounge, the transit hotel, and an internet cafe, all in the same area… score!
The only catch was that the business class lounge here was closed (like, seemingly permanently).
As was the airport hotel.
As was the internet cafe.
Speaking of internet, don’t expect you’ll be able to connect to the outside world in Ashgabat, at least via Wi-Fi (my T-Mobile plan also doesn’t offer free roaming there). The standard airport Wi-Fi requires having a local phone number.
So I headed back downstairs. One of the “good” things about Ashgabat Airport is that there’s no shortage of staff. Specifically, there are endless security (I’m not sure if they’re police, military, or what — they all have those massive hats that are common in Central Asia) — there’s one stationed at the end of each moving walkway.
I tried to ask for directions to the business class lounge, and there was a language barrier, but eventually I was pointed in exactly the opposite direction, right where I came from. This airport has two lounges?!?
Side note — can I just say how bad I feel for these security guards? I can’t imagine having to clock in every day and just standing still in an empty airport for hours on end with nothing to do. It makes me grateful that I get to do what I love for a living… in this case, flying and transiting Ashgabat Airport. 😉
The Ashgabat Airport lounge was also an experience
The business class lounge at Ashgabat Airport was quite the experience as well. As you enter the lounge, there’s a speaker there playing what I can only describe as some sort of club music (not airport “club” music, but, like, real club music). That’s not exactly what I was expecting before 4AM, but I’ll take it!
The front desk wasn’t actually staffed — instead, the attendant was sitting in the back corner of the lounge having a drink. However, she’d slowly walk up as she saw people arriving, to briefly glance at their boarding pass.
The lounge almost feels like the area outside a hotel conference room, or something.
The food was basic…
…well, for the most part.
But I was careful, since I wondered how long that food had been sitting out there.
You know the real luxury of the lounge, though? It has Wi-Fi! I was delighted to be able to connect, since I didn’t think that would be possible. However, Turkmenistan’s internet is heavily restricted, and none of the “mainstream” VPNs I use worked.
Bottom line
Ashgabat Airport was everything I had hoped and heard. The airport is large, bright, and shiny, with very few passengers, and a lot of guards. Don’t expect Wi-Fi or much in the way of amenities. I’ve been to various places in Central Asia (I think it’s one of the most fascinating regions in the world), but Ashgabat Airport was on a different level in terms of its strangeness.
What do you make of Ashgabat Airport?
I'm disappointed by the lack of horse imagery. The leader (aka the president's father) has a nag for horses
C’mon Ben, surely you walked through a metal detector and not an x-ray ;)
Fascinating indeed. I travelled through the previous terminal that was also shiny and extravagant. While much smaller, it already seemed way too large for the limited number of flights that it handled.
Fascinating country
Well, beats every transit experience in the USA. No need to fill an ESTA, no long lines at imigration, no customs, no baggage recheck, nobody yelling at you, clean, modern…
a not overcrowded lounge and you actually get caviar.
Beating a USA transit experience on every single step
Transiting the United States is a hideous nightmare. Only the worst of shithole countries don't offer sterile transit.
Beating the US travel experience is a very low bar to pass :) There's a reason why so many people travelling EU > Latin America avoid it like a plague.
Did you walk through an x-ray, or was it a magnetometer (metal detector)?
If it was x-ray, was it safe? Was it like the backscatter body scanners from the past?
Wow, club music! Like actual Berlin mixes?
As one or two others have pointed out, 3:40am is not at all 'rush hour' at ASB. Not sure how you came up with that? Was it because your plane landed at roughly the same time as two others? That's mere coincidence, and not rush hour at ASB. In reality, ASB 'rush hour' (relatively speaking, because it's not like we're talking about LHR or JFK here) is actually 6am to 9am, and again from 4pm...
As one or two others have pointed out, 3:40am is not at all 'rush hour' at ASB. Not sure how you came up with that? Was it because your plane landed at roughly the same time as two others? That's mere coincidence, and not rush hour at ASB. In reality, ASB 'rush hour' (relatively speaking, because it's not like we're talking about LHR or JFK here) is actually 6am to 9am, and again from 4pm into the early evening. It's not a ridiculously busy airport, but it is modern and good enough to while away a couple of hours waiting for your next flight. I wouldn't bother going earlier than that though.
On my trip there I ended up at ASB 4 times - arrival, 2 one-way domestic flights, and my departure flight. Each time was totally normal (except for obtaining the visa on arrival and COVID test), so I'm (slightly) surprised to read about your experience. As far as wifi/data - my Google Fi + ExpressVPN worked the entire time, all over the country. Also the main rush hour is more like 5-7am, which is when...
On my trip there I ended up at ASB 4 times - arrival, 2 one-way domestic flights, and my departure flight. Each time was totally normal (except for obtaining the visa on arrival and COVID test), so I'm (slightly) surprised to read about your experience. As far as wifi/data - my Google Fi + ExpressVPN worked the entire time, all over the country. Also the main rush hour is more like 5-7am, which is when all of the domestic flights depart for all over the country. When I flew out, I was on Turkish at 3am and the terminal was fairly buzzy.
It's a beautiful facility. The green and gold accents give it a bit of character.
What a strange place
Btw, you are allowed to walk outside in the city without an guide. You just need to book a tour in order to get a visa but I spent most of the days walking around the city alone. Its not like North Korea where you not allowed to walk outside without a guide.
When we were there, they had a rug shop in the terminal, behind security, once you had checked your bags. They sold huge rugs…but there was no way to get them home. Too big for carry on. Did not offer shipping. It was a real head scratcher !
I’m confused, was the business class lounge permanently closed like you wrote? What lounge did you visit?
TBH as a Venezuelan this makes me a bit jealous. I find the facilities to be quite pretty compared the devastation that the socialist regime of Hugo Chávez did to my country. He an his worldwide leftist comrades and supporters totally eviscerated the biggest oil bonanza in the Planet and we don't a have a 0.001% of the facilities that random Turkmenistan has.
I'm sure the average person in Turkmenistan doesn't profit from the resources either.
yeah probably, but at least they invest in infrastructure even if it is for the propaganda factor. My hometown is the oldest city in the whole American continent and we get a whopping ONCE weekly flight to the country capital. (Before socialism, I used to take a flight in the early morning just to have lunch at any of the wonderful American franchise restaurants in Caracas and come back in the afternoon.. Among many other things we lost).
Nope. One of the poorest populations out there. Worse than Kyrgyzstan, if memory serves.
I doubt capitalism will be much better to Venezuela.
Turkmenistan is not so random. They have tons of natural resources (natural gas and minerals) as well, although obviously not nearly as much oil as Venezuela.
Any issues in taking the pictures at the airport? Did you take them freely or had to kind of hide your phone to take them? Just wondering since you mentioned so many restrictions in the country.
It sounds like my dream airport, particularly the profound paucity of passengers.
try mallorca in winter — sometimes also pretty tranquilo
Did any VPN work if not the mainstream ones?
Yes, JumpJump. I used a local sim card in Turkmenistan and it worked very well with the JumpJump VPN.
ExpressVPN worked flawlessly for me (this was last year but I know people who have been more recently as well). All over the country, 10 days, no issues.
This is giving backrooms.
Biznes Klas
Interesting language
Since Turkmenistan was part of the USSR, there were many loanwords that came in from Russian. "Biznes Klas" sounds totally normal to a Russian ear, so that seems to be the likely origin, rather than the language family that includes Turkish.
That's transliterated Russian. Interestingly, the sign for the hotel uses a proper Turkmen word.
I don't think this transit experience was more bizarre than Cairo Airport ;)
Hahaha - agreed.
Turkmenistan is Trump’s benchmark. An authoritarian dictatorship.
I wonder how those confused LGW-KUL transit passengers booked Turkmenistan Airlines in the first place given that it doesn't show up on any of the OTAs. They would have had to actually check on its website I believe? Wouldn't that require being pretty deliberate about your booking?
Or maybe they were influencers enacting another "OMG I booked a flight to "Nice" and ended up in "Tunis""
Or "OMG I booked a flight to OAK and ended up in AKL..."
Hahah I still wonder whether someone at delta mucked up those names as I booked an Auckland to Oakland flight for my dad in biz for like $1500 back in the day. They tried to cancel it then honoured it. Mind you not sure why they’d be offering Oakland to Oakland
@747-40, like Ben already pointed out, Turkmenistan Airlines does show up on OTAs and search engines as of recently, including Google flights... So I wouldn't be surprised if someone (especially an American or Brit, given the higher predisposition towards a lacking geography knowledge) booked a cheap ticket on "Turk-something" Airlines and was surprised at finding themselves in the airport equivalent of the backrooms.
A few years ago (let's say around 2013) I tried a couple of physical travel agents in England serving the VFR market in the hope of finding half-decent consolidator fares. Turkmenistan Airlines would often come up as one of the options, and I seem to remember that some connections were also offered on Tajik Air via Dushanbe. I didn't go through with the purchase (I also needed to go as far as MEL and it...
A few years ago (let's say around 2013) I tried a couple of physical travel agents in England serving the VFR market in the hope of finding half-decent consolidator fares. Turkmenistan Airlines would often come up as one of the options, and I seem to remember that some connections were also offered on Tajik Air via Dushanbe. I didn't go through with the purchase (I also needed to go as far as MEL and it made more sense to buy a Skyteam RTW (RIP) and combine it with a some long haul award redemptions and a handful of short haul revenue tickets) but those TAs still very much exist and I'm sure that most of their customers are only interested in the price and the luggage allowance and wouldn't mind flying to Asia via Abidjan and Mogadishu if it saved them a few quid.
I should've mentioned that I was looking to fly in business class to the Far East, but my idea was on exactly the same lines as that of their VFR customers. I would have grabbed a £1,000 return fare even if it came without useful miles or lie flat seats, but they seemed to hover around £1,600- or £2.3k in today's money.
* checks bucket list * Nope , Ashgabat not found. This is why Ben is essential.
Yeah.. I’m good.. :-/
A tour of tbe Stans and Armenia is a very interesting trip. Stay away from Afghanistan, though. Not recommended.
I’m open to visiting Armenia, even Georgia (no, Tim, not that one…) Ironically, there’s a relatively regular nonstop Uzbekistan 787 flight from JFK-Tashkent. I think that’s the only one directly from the US to any Stan these days.
Georgia is a fascinating country. Highly recommend Citadel Naricala Hotel, room 20,on the outer deck overlooking the city, New Year's Eve.
Tbilisi is a fascinating city, and well priced.
Lol, I had to chuckle at the reference, but really non-reference to Georgia, USA.
Maybe DL can start now start non-stops to Ashgabat.
On a serious note, I always appreciate Tim’s opinions.
Love those resplendent green accents!
Decoration doesn't look bad at all.
This is entirely common in authoritarian, dictatorial and third-world countries.
The “information” minister can say with a straight face, “See we have a business class lounge.” Or, “We have an airport hotel.” But it’s never open except for special occasions or when the government needs a photo opportunity for propaganda.
Alternatively, particularly in the third world, they get international funding for someone but either construction doesn't finish or they lack the capability to...
This is entirely common in authoritarian, dictatorial and third-world countries.
The “information” minister can say with a straight face, “See we have a business class lounge.” Or, “We have an airport hotel.” But it’s never open except for special occasions or when the government needs a photo opportunity for propaganda.
Alternatively, particularly in the third world, they get international funding for someone but either construction doesn't finish or they lack the capability to operate it.
When Josh Cahill went, it appears that they opened the hotel for him!