How To Fly on a Classic Soviet Airliner for Less than £30!

the classic Soviet airliners tupolev Antonov illusion the names as exotic as the aircraft themselves they evoke a memory of a more glamorous time of trouble a time when every airport wasn't full of Airbus a320s and Boeing 737s when flying was more fun little wonder that these aircraft have become somewhat of the holy grail for aviation enthusiasts the world over but suddenly flying on them has become somewhat of a difficult task apart from the occasional Carnival of flying the rubber duck master in Hong Kong there very rarely seen in Western Europe today yes you could spend over 1500 pounds on a specialist aviation tour of Eastern Europe but he's got a spare 1,500 pounds lying around certainly not me and to be honest as a northerner I wouldn't pay that money even if I did happen there's got to be a cheaper way to do this and there is you see while Soviet airliners have become like gold dust in the rest of the world in Eastern Europe there's still a few airlines that are operates in them and thanks to low-cost airlines like Weezer and Ryanair getting over to Eastern Europe has never been cheaper or easier check out this landline for example this is an airline in Ukraine that flies a fleet of Russian airliners and looking at their website they are operating Antonov 24 Xanten at 140 s Antonov 74 even yak-40 is very rare aircraft and they're operating them on a network of flights within the Ukraine you could book flights directly on the website and get this the flights are less than 30 pounds each now with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and whizzer operating daily to numerous Ukrainian airports it's incredibly easy to get over to Ukraine cash to fly on these aircrafts so I'm going to give it a go so I'm heading down to Luton Airport where I'm going to catch tonight with air flights over to Kiev Giuliani International Airport now this flight has cost me less than 35 pounds and it takes me directly to the airport in the Ukraine where hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be catching my very first Antonov flight [Music] okay so I'm here now okay nightmare journey down actually lots of accidents on the m1 made it a crazy journey down the Hudson and up going down a load of backroads to bring it here inside of am here now at Luton was heading into the terminal building it's a bit of a walk from our parts over at the Ivies hotel here but some enormous pretty loosen to Kiev is on its way in now to check the flight tracker and it is scheduled to be on time on its way [Music] [Music] so here we are at CFC on the International Airport and this is where I'll be flying out on the snow tomorrow hopefully there is one right over there actually yeah need to do a very bright colors I'm now walking down to my hotel which is about a ten minute walk I believe it's very cold here it's below freezing lots of snow everywhere I'm totally underdressed for this weather relatively moderate temperatures in the UK but never mind hopefully not too far to walk down tomato [Music] walking through these streets in Kiev's Giuliani district and is helped us to in the morning and this streets are oddly deserted I can hear dogs howling in the distance the occasional order driving post it's very surreal and a little bit disturbing if I'm honest I'm looking forward to getting into my hotel which hopefully isn't too far away now [Music] [Music] very retro I'll have to say bathroom okay okay so here I am in quite possibly the strangest hotel room that I've ever kind of stayed in this is the Royal Congress hotel and it is the closest hotel to Kiev's Giuliani International Airport and it also has the added bonus it's just 20 pounds per nights but it's a quite an elaborate place really from the outside it looks like a metal building very modern but then you kind of come in and we're all very old-fashioned and with floral carpets I mean check out the bedroom check out our bedroom I don't think I've seen anything like elaborate since 1980s and if you think that's better have a look at this bathroom retro I mean yeah this is certainly different sound is certainly very Ukrainian and I'm only here for one night this has to be very funny it's quite humorous the pub at this hotel is just 20 pounds a night though it's only a 10-15 minute walk from Giuliani Airport which is what I booked you for any here for eight hours if that actually with the delay is now what time is it now - 39 a.m. here in Ukraine can't really say anything out the window its pitch black we're in a deserted little sort of Kiev just here is absolutely dead there is nothing here at all but I'm going to retire retire to my very elegant boudoir and I will see you in the morning and it's answered of day [Music] [Music] good morning from a very cold and very snowy Kiev it's minus six outside right now to be honest it doesn't feel much warmer in here the hotel has no heating really to speak off there is radiators but they're stone-cold the air conditioning doesn't work it's absolutely freezing in this hotel so I'm gonna be heading off very shortly to take the walk back to Giuliani Airport about ten minutes walk away from here our aircraft is inbound from Safari Jie right now now a bit frustrating me move to stick airlines have to add some of 24 s that they send on these flights one of them is basically has a window to every row there the one is very different in its configuration and has a window kind of every other window so to say you'll see when I get on board the plane later but needless to say the aircraft there Saturday today is the one that doesn't have the window on the road that I've chosen yeah so I'm heading down to the airport let's see if they can change my seat to a row that does have a window so let's go and venture out into this absolutely baltic weather here in kiev and see how we get on with getting our seats sorted [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so the robes are slightly busier this morning and they were last night it's and 2:00 a.m. it's a lot colder though it's actually snowing smaller I don't know whether you can see it in the end taking this 10 minute walk now back down to Juliana Airport which I can actually see now no stay lights actually doesn't look as far as it seemed what's nice so let's say could wander around on these very slippage trees [Music] I said it's too cold the hood is firmly engaged [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so I am here now at all of the international airports here in western Ukraine and wow what a flight that was onboard the Antonov 24 and all for less than 30 pounds as well this is what it's all about guys flying on aircraft like this in 2018 we're still flying on Antonov 24 who would've thought it fantastic experience to fly on such a classic Russian airline or Soviet era and rather I'm onboard the Antonov so I am gonna head back inside now and wait for my next flight and I'm heading home now there's two options to get home back to the UK from the if I could either gets a the flight that I am doing is going up to Warsaw with lots and then flying home with Weiser from Warsaw back to Luton this evening coming very soon we're actually going to be starting flights directly from the visit of London Luton so you'll be able to do this directly back to Luton as well so makes the whole experience of flying on these Russian airline is even easier it let's head back inside grab something to Inga in the woods [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so less than 24 hours after leaving here yesterday in the UK and it's been absolutely wonderful if you trip over to the Ukraine I've flown on four flights been on an Antonov an-24 which has been absolutely amazing and yet it's just absolutely amazing experience really the entire trip that I've just taken as well as to cost me less than a hundred and eighty pounds and that's for four flights including the Antonov fly as well which is a real value for money and to be honest 80 pounds of that was on the lots for it that I took and starting in a couple of months time where there are starting with some direct flights from the viv in to London Luton so you could save more money if you do that in the next few months where there is an interesting experience but what I will say is that if you can stomach the discomfort and the screaming children for a couple of hours then you can get some really interested experiences as we've just found out with this trip here and they fly directly into loads of airports across Eastern Europe so you can take advantage of these really cool deals on flying on really rare aircraft like we did with the Antonov and with 30 pounds each way really you can't complain about that there's other options available as well of course Ryanair fly to a lot of airports over there blue air Romania fly to a few I don't know whether there is they go anywhere that the Antonov seflie or anything but you could always try those as well there's lots of Airlines and operate into the Eastern European market now from the UK so all that remains for me to say is thank you so much for watching this video I hope you found it helpful I hope it helps you to plan your trip on your Antonov 24 whatever it is you like to do thanks again for watching and I'll see you next time you

Channel: Noel Philips

Views: 84,379

Rating: 4.818182 out of 5

Keywords: inflight video, antonov, an-24, antonov an-24, soviet airliner, russian airliner, trip report, fly on a russian airliner, fly on a soviet airliner, soviet, ilyushin, motor sich, tupolev, tu-154, uk, ukraine, russian aircraft, rare aircraft, fly on russian airliner, travel, trip, report, kiev, lviv, warsaw, wizz air, wizz air trip report, flight report, flight, pauls trip reports, sam chui, simply aviation

Id: LDfWtaANUgE

Length: 31min 42sec (1902 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2018