Greetings to the readers of this resource!
I present a review of a flight on a route that was a discovery for me - I had never flown between Bahrain and Kenya before.
But first, a little digression towards sad philosophy, indirectly related to this review. Since the departure point is reminiscent of current events, which resulted in the closure of air traffic in the region. Currently, Bahrain airport is already open, and is even returning to its usual rhythm. But the route network is being restored gradually. First, from a portion of their flights (probably those that were most in demand), they formed a temporary route network with departures and arrivals through the nearby airport of Dammam (Saudi Arabia). By the way, this airport turned out to be very unusual and will appear again during this review. Then Gulf Air resumed another part of its flights both from its base airport and from Dammam, but the one that flies to Moscow still remained closed. Narrow-body aircraft serving this route simply will not be able to cover the changed route through Pakistan or Europe without landing. Thus, during the first conflict in the summer of 2025, the airline did not suspend the flight Bahrain - Moscow and back, but it was operated with an intermediate landing in Larnaca, Cyprus. With the current conflict frozen, flights to Moscow's Domodedovo resumed, but with an intermediate stop in Tbilisi. Currently, flights to Moscow have begun to operate as non-stop flights, but, firstly, not daily, and secondly - and this came as a surprise - instead of Domodedovo, Gulf Air now (from May 1, 2026) flies to Sheremetyevo. From June 1, flights to Sheremetyevo will become daily, thus restoring regular communication with Russia at pre-crisis levels.
This concludes the introductory part and begins the review of departure from what was then still a calm place.
Flight statistics.
Flight GF707 Bahrain - Nairobi.
Scheduled departure at 9.00, arrival at 14.40. The planned travel time is 5 hours 40 minutes.
Actually departure is at 9.27, arrival at 14.18. The travel time was 4 hours 51 minutes.
The plane is A320 neo, registration number A9C-TG.
At the time of the flight, the plane was almost new, produced 2 months ago. Delivered from the Toulouse plant to the airline at the end of September 2025 and began transporting passengers literally a month before my flight on it. In my flight history, this is probably the youngest plane on which I had to fly.
The flight took place sequentially over the following countries and territories:
Persian Gulf - Saudi Arabia - Red Sea - Eritrea - Ethiopia - Kenya.
There is no time difference between the point of departure and arrival.
I will leave the story with the purchase of tickets and pre-flight preparations for another review in this series. And now briefly about the departure point - Bahrain.
An interesting detail - the capital of Bahrain is the city of Manama, but in everyday life and even in officialdom it is not separated from the country. It's rare to hear - I'm flying to Manama, or I live in Manama. They usually say “I’m flying to Bahrain”, “I live in Bahrain”. Even the airport - the only one in the country - bears the name of the country, not the city. All this is probably because the territory of Bahrain is small - its area is even smaller than Moscow within the Moscow Ring Road.
Those who have been to Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi or Kuwait can safely get an idea about Bahrain, its capital, Manama. Everything is the same: ideal infrastructure, skyscrapers, luxury cars on excellent wide highways and roads, chic malls, little greenery due to the dominance of the desert:
We spent only half a day in Bahrain and in the morning we went to the airport, where a transfer minibus took us. Along the way, looking at the city, we can conclude that it continues to be actively built:
The journey took about 20 minutes. We are already approaching:
Bahrain Airport
There have already been reviews about Bahrain Airport on this resource, but quite a long time ago and the old terminal was still featured in them. But what hasn’t happened yet is the lighting of the new airport terminal. In this review we will fix this. I will try to tell you about it in as much detail as possible.
The driver dropped me off at the entrance to the departure area:
The weather at this time of year (November) is excellent. There is no longer that sizzling heat that is inherent in the countries of the Middle East in the summer months. It feels like 25-27 degrees. He looked around and captured the adjacent station area:
The traditional arrangement of terminals: the lower level is arrivals, the upper level is departures, this was also observed here - we were on the overpass:
There are wide bridges spanning an equal distance between the overpass and the terminal building. Below they could see the arrival area, with beautiful well-groomed lawns and a shallow pool, which was being cleaned at that time:
We go inside, it’s cool. It is immediately noticeable that the terminal is one of the top ones - the surfaces shine, the harmonious combination of colors, the breadth of spaces, the high-tech style - in general, the design and concept are well done. The dirty area is divided into two layers. After the entrance there is the first hall, and here you can see various services: a couple of cafes (I saw Starbucks and Crepafe), a currency exchange office, an art gallery, points with free drinking water, etc., etc.:
Between the first and second halls there are several wide passages. Here is one of them that we went through:
Behind the aisle, the second part (hall) of the dirty area is where registration takes place.
There is no one at the endless rows of registration desks. Self-registration kiosks are also installed:
We were already registered. Moreover, we had boarding passes in hand, received the day before at this magnificent airport during the transfer:
Therefore, we had to go through border guards and inspection:
Border control is located in a vast and open space. And here there is the same radiant beauty - the light of the ceiling lamps reflected from the floor, creating the illusion of slippery ice:
There were both automatic control terminals - but no one passed through them, nor with border guards. There were more than enough of the latter - many were bored without passengers:
Passed control in a matter of seconds. At the same time, the officers, some of whom were dressed in traditional Arab dress, and some in uniform with perfectly ironed white uniform shirts, were friendly and extremely correct.
Next - the search. Even the inspection equipment, which was quite modern in appearance, had a tint to the adjacent spaces - milky white:
Even before going through the inspection, it was possible to evaluate the clean area - it was perfectly visible through the almost invisible glass fence:
There were no problems with the inspection either - there was no queue, no questions either. Having passed it, we exit into a clean zone:
Here, in the center of the hall, an incomprehensible composition was installed - two balls, polished to a shine, representing either eyes or planets:
Having walked around this composition from the other side, there was no increase in understanding - several smaller ones were built inside one of the balls, and the second, it seems, indeed, judging by the internal structure, personified an eye - something similar to the iris rushed to the center of the ball, and before reaching it, it left room for the pupil. Perhaps the inscriptions found on the first ball would have provided explanations, but they were all in Arabic, so in the end I never figured out the meaning of this assemblage. If any of the readers speak Arabic, it would help in understanding this composition:
But let's leave the balls without understanding their purpose, and look around. The central hall, like the dirty area, was all shining. The eyes were actually blinded by the lack of calm and monotonous tones. There were:
- duty-free shops:
- information desk with departures board and airport diagram:
The terminal diagram is extremely clear and is simple and reveals the structure of its topology: from the center, where it was currently located, two wings extend in a straight line. In these wings, forming one common row, there are gates numbered from 11A/11B to 22A/22B. There were 24 gates in total:
Departure board in the form of an open book:
Four “sheets” of this “book” contained information about departures for the next 10 hours. Destinations are mainly Middle Eastern, Pakistan, India. Among this Asian scattering, only two destinations stood out from the general theme: our departure point - Nairobi, and also London. And Prague looked like a complete black sheep. What she was doing here is not entirely clear. It was probably a charter.
Our gate is 18A, and it is very close to the right side of the center of the hall:
In the very center of the hall there is a rounded glass ceiling and the same rounded lack of floor. In the middle of this they installed a massive cabinet, glowing with various switching advertisements:
Below, around the base of this cabinet, a children's playground was organized. On it, in addition to the usual plastic slides, there was even a corner where children could play computer games:
Behind the entrance to the playground there is a round information desk, made in a fashionable high-tech style:
I asked the counter staff why I can’t connect to the Internet? Yesterday I arrived, everything connected easily, we were provided with Internet for 6 hours. I spent a couple of hours at the airport. And today I connect using the same scheme - it doesn’t connect. They answered that the Internet is provided once a day, and if you use at least 10 minutes, consider that everything else is burned out.
Behind the information desk, near the display windows overlooking the airfield, they installed a trend structure that is a symbol, or better yet, the logo of the local airport - Bahrain International Airport. This is probably for those who like to capture themselves in photos for social networks in various locations around the world:
But before looking through the windows onto the airfield and getting acquainted with the boards standing there, let's continue exploring the terminal.
Near the center of the hall there was a decent-looking cafe:
Not far from it is another, simpler class: the famous brand Burger King:
There is also a pizzeria:
And I don’t even know what to call it - probably a cafeteria. The fact is that you can buy coffee not from a seller, but from a humanoid robot:
Well, there is a selection of decent eateries at the airport for every taste. What about any wallet? Let's go to the Illy cafe, the photo of which is above Burger King. These are the price tags:
It would seem that the prices are pennies. Croissants depending on the filling 2-3 dinars, a bottle of juice or tea 2 dinars. But this is if you don’t know the local currency exchange rate. Now we find out, there it is, the exchange office:
We waited until the screen switched to the American dollar, and here you go, the rate:
And now let’s sequentially convert the prices for food/drink into dollars and rubles. It turns out for croissants 5.5-8.7 dollars, for juices/tea - 5.5 dollars, or 450-700 and 450 rubles, respectively. Those. to eat a croissant and wash it down with a cup of coffee, you will have to say goodbye to about one thousand rubles.
Everything is clear, Bahrain Airport holds the general mark of top Middle Eastern airports (where I have been, and these are: DXB, DOH, AUH) in terms of not let’s say prohibitive, but quite high prices for snacks in clean areas. A wonderful and plentiful breakfast at the hotel perfectly satiated me and therefore saved money on the card from the encroachments of the local culinary industry - I didn’t feel like eating/drinking, so we moved on.
I saw the entrance to the second floor, then another one:
I didn’t bother going up, judging by the information on the signs there were located business lounges.
I remember at the Dubai airport the local duty-free store was putting up luxury cars for a drawing. Here in Bahrain they have set the bar even higher:
Having reached her gate, the companion remained in the boarding area. And no wonder: the waiting areas at the gates were an extremely comfortable and free space, completely discouraging the desire to move anywhere in this magnificent airport. There were options for placing your body to suit every taste: from ordinary seats, oriented in such a way that the passenger could admire the airfield, to soft round chairs with high backs, and even to wide, round or oval-shaped soft poufs on which you could not only sit, but also lie down. Look at the beauty and comfort for passengers waiting to board:
Leaving his companion to wait here for boarding, he continued along the right wing of the terminal further:
An opaque fence was installed between gates 19 and 20, hiding some kind of repairs from the eyes of passengers works:
On the other side there was an escalator down to additional gates (most likely bus gates). There was nothing remarkable there: having gone down for the sake of interest, I saw just an empty hall:
Next there was a small cafe and the same miniature duty-free:
There were no scheduled flights departing in the near future in this part of the terminal, and accordingly there were practically no passengers:
The last gates on the right side of the terminal wing:
There was a Gulf Air Dreamliner parked here:
On the side opposite the airfield, the same wide windows made it possible take a look at the infrastructure adjacent to the airport, as well as at the capital of Bahrain, Manama, visible in the distance:
Look into the toilet. And here it’s clean and high-tech:
I’m coming back:
Now on my left is a view of the city:
And on the right is the platform. Now let's look at the airfield:
There are all the liveries of the airline for which this airport is the base - Gulf Air. If you pay attention to the photo above, the airline's livery is not uniform - the tails are painted differently. But that's not all. There is a third option for coloring the sides:
The most common - and probably classic - is this livery:
Below in the photo - the fuselage seems to be painted the same way, but the falcon pattern on the tail is slightly different from each other:
In fact, outside the window there was a monopoly of one airline. About the same thing can be seen at Bole Airport in Addis Ababa. But there this monopoly is expressed even more clearly, since the airport is much larger than in Bahrain, and, accordingly, the number of aircraft in the parking lot is also.
Now, finally, I saw something extraordinary in the taxiing process - a US military aircraft Lockheed C-130T Hercules:
In addition, I knew that Bahrain is a hub for DHL cargo, but not a single plane of this airline was visible.
It was possible to observe the airfield not only by going to the window, but by sitting in these chairs:
I passed the center of the clean zone hall, already shown to readers above, smoothly moving to the left wing of the terminal. At gate 14 I noticed the presence of a cafe on the roof. Is it really in the open air? There was an elevator on the left, it was worth checking:
Took the elevator up. Indeed, this is an open-air area. With a view of both the city:
and through the cafe - onto the airfield:
Oh! I finally saw a different livery.
The cafe is named according to its location - The terrace cafe bar:
The bar offered a wide range of alcoholic drinks. However, this is not surprising - Bahrain is probably the most loyal country in the Persian Gulf - tourists can drink, and women can wear bold clothes.
Only one visitor ate at the rooftop cafe:
It’s unlikely that this cafe is open in the summer months due to the high ambient temperature, but in November it’s quite nice, pleasantly warm. At least after being here for 5 minutes I was able to warm up a little from the coolness generated by the terminal's air conditioners.
Behind gate 14, gates 13 and 12 were visible, where characteristically dressed passengers awaited their flights to Pakistani cities. There was also a hotel for transfer passengers in the left wing of the terminal:
He told and showed readers the entire structure of the new airport building, which turned out to be not very large, topologically simple, in the form of a straight line and a central core in the middle. While inspecting the clean area of I looked at my watch - there was half an hour left before departure, which meant I needed to hurry to boarding, which had probably already begun. I returned to the gate, and sure enough, boarding was already underway, or rather, it was even ending. The passengers of zone 1, which included us, went first and had already boarded the plane a long time ago, the companion said. The subsequent zones also passed and the remaining passengers were now moving to boarding. The line of them was short, although some still waited until the last minute, remaining in the waiting chairs. We stood at the end of the queue, go through:
Interestingly, they did not check the entry requirements for Kenya (availability of eTA). At other transit airports, before being allowed on board, they always demanded to see it. Perhaps because not so long ago Kenya became the first country in the world to abolish visas for citizens of all countries. For entry, an eTa is now enough, which is issued on the website in 10 minutes, and after payment arrives in the mail in another 15 (although the stated waiting time is up to three days). There are no known cases of refusal to issue an ETA.
We go to the plane:
View from the jetway to the right:
And onto our board, behind which the delayed A350 flight was taxiing Emirates from Dubai:
On board, flight
We walk between the empty business class seats - not a single one was occupied. Seat belts were attached to them in a unique way - like in a sports car:
First row of economy class:
Moving along the aisle, about five rows before ours, I saw that in my place by the window the top of someone’s head was already sticking out. As he approached, he began to explain to the owner of the top of the head - it was a young woman - that they had taken the wrong place and needed to be vacated. She didn’t even get up in response. I shove our boarding tickets under her nose, show her the field where the place is printed - in response, some kind of incomprehensible tirade in an unknown language. The flight attendant, seeing the hesitation and our dialogue, came up, looked at my boarding pass and asked the impudent passenger for it. I already understood from her reaction that she was stubborn and not primitive in matters of passenger seating. The flight attendant, having looked at her boarding ticket, made a strong-willed gesture with her hand, meaning approximately the following: “get out of this place, and quickly.” She got up with a grumble, walked out into the aisle, let us through, and then sat down with us in a seat on the edge, 25D. Lately I’ve been “lucky” with this kind of travel companions. Two months ago something similar happened on a domestic flight in the Philippines. There, too, the passenger tried to pretend to be a fool, but this number didn’t work for him either.
I made my way to my seat and sat down. The view from the window is quite tolerable: the wings do not interfere with viewing the surrounding space and will not interfere with peering into details on the ground during the flight:
The back of the seat turned out to be without a monitor - this is a minus. On the previous flight there was a monitor (on board the A321):
I played with the functionality of the backrest. In addition to the folding cup holder, for the first time I saw a feature for modern trends - a folding stand for a smartphone:
As you can see, the literature was in the upper part of the backrest. The bottom one contained a simple mesh pocket that remained empty. Its volume was increased by a holding elastic band:
There was a built-in USB connector in the back, which was useless for my smartphone model. But below between the seats there was a full-fledged socket, judging by the burning light bulb - it was functioning. Indeed, having stuck a plug into it, the phone began to charge:
Took out the literature. The safety instructions are printed on thin satin paper:
A booklet on the possibilities of connecting to the local Internet with a set of films, music, flight information - everything that is usually broadcast on a monitor, but on this flight, if desired and connected, will be broadcast through your own device:
While I was studying the surrounding passengers capabilities and devices, landing entered the final stage:
Panel:
In general, the interior looked fresh, new, which is not surprising, given the age of the aircraft.
There was enough legroom, the knees were far from the front seat. When the landing was over, I stood up and looked around - the board was almost full. In the back rows, 4-5 seats remained unoccupied.
Our board began to be pulled away from the jet bridge at 9.05:
As we moved in reverse, the aircraft parking lot opened up, almost all consisting of boards of the base airline, among which, diluting the monotony, was the Emirates livery. By the way, this Emirates plane (A6-EXJ) turned out to be even younger than our plane - it arrived at the airline at the end of October and made its first commercial flight on October 24, i.e. just 10 days ago:
We were turned to the left:
Next, under our own power, we taxied onto a parallel track and, turning 180 degrees, drove back to the original one. Now on my side again there was a terminal, an Emirates board and our parking place:
I wonder why they didn’t immediately turn us to the right, as they did with Air Arabi:
At other airports, it’s common to see a lawn between the taxiways, but here it’s a piece of desert. Continuing to taxi at the end of the terminal, a minicopy of the Washington Monument appeared, which was visible from the terminal windows:
Having reached the end of the taxiway, we turned to the beginning of the runway:
And, in fact, take-off:
After lifting off, the typical residential suburban development typical of Middle Eastern countries was revealed, although more dense than in the UAE or Qatar - most likely due to a shortage of land. Black stripes of asphalt roads, clearly standing out among the surrounding sand, are also a feature inherent in all these countries:
Next one could see how the tiny state of Bahrain is reclaiming territory from the bay for construction. A complex of islands appeared, forming a giant square with sides of 3.5-4 kilometers - artificial origin, alluvial. Diyar El Muharraq, a new city in the state of Bahrain, is located on it. Its half, closest to the airport, has already been developed, but the complex of distant islands has yet to be built up and developed:
The bay off the coast is shallow. Most likely, in a few years it will also turn into alluvial land:
We took off to the north, and our direction is in the south, therefore a turn should follow. But it didn't come. I thought that the plane would make a right turn and go south through Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman, as other airlines in the Middle East usually fly.
Our plane turned smoothly to the west and continued flying in a straight line:
The Gulf coast from Saudi Arabia appeared:
We fly directly over the city center of Dammam, mentioned in the introduction to the review. Through the completely transparent glass of the porthole and the atmosphere, the infrastructure of the city was clearly visible, among which stood out lonely skyscrapers, the frame of a large stadium under construction, beautiful road junctions:
After flying past Dammam, its airport appeared. Its name is Dammam King Fahd International Airport. It deserves to be discussed and introduced to readers. Firstly, it is the largest airport in the world (literally), with an area of km. Of course, not the entire territory is given over to terminals, taxiways and runways. But the land owned by the airport has a reserve for the future within the framework of the state program Vision 2030. Secondly, in addition to the main passenger terminal, it has separate terminals - one for the royal family, the second for employees of Saudi Aramco, the national oil company. Thirdly, having two parallel runways (one for passenger airlines, the other for Saudi Aramco flights), they are connected to each other by a taxiway that runs over Route 605, forming an aerobridge for taxiing aircraft.
Unfortunately, our board had already gained sufficient altitude, and from this level the airport seemed normal. Although its two runways (passenger and Saudi Aramco), terminals and a bridge for aircraft were easy to distinguish:
Only 8 minutes passed from the moment of takeoff until the appearance of Dammam airport. In this regard, another interesting detail emerges - in addition to the record with a plus sign (the largest airport in the world), Dammam can boast of the opposite “almost record” - one of the shortest international flights in the world.
Manama in Bahrain and Dammam are connected by a bridge, and the distance between the centers of these cities is 75 km. A car, observing the speed limit, will cover this distance in an hour and a half. In this regard, it is not entirely clear for what purpose there is regular air service between this Saudi city and Bahrain. Moreover, Gulf Air operates four daily flights on A320/321 aircraft! That is, flights are in demand. The planned flight time for this route is 35 minutes, but in reality only 15-20 minutes are spent. However, taking into account pre-flight procedures and travel time to and from the airport, of course, a car is much faster. And much cheaper - out of curiosity, I checked the flight prices three weeks before departure (before the current conflict in the Middle East). I almost fell out of my chair - almost 36 thousand rubles one way! And this, I repeat, in 15 minutes of flight:
Okay, I got a little distracted, let’s get back to the review. Outside the window, Saudi Arabia continued to float by - mostly, of course, solid sand, but dissected by threads of asphalt highways and patches of populated areas:
That is, to say that we were flying over a lifeless desert, as I imagined Saudi Arabia, would be incorrect.
I connected my smartphone via internal Wi-Fi. to the local Internet and displayed information about the flight. Unfortunately, the capital of the country, Riyadh, remained on the other side of the flight path. Although it was still unlikely that it could be seen clearly enough, since we flew about 50 km to the north:
After an hour of flight, they offered breakfast:
There was no choice - at least they didn’t ask what you wanted. They just served a tray:
I asked for some tea. He opened the lids to reveal the contents of the plates:
Fruits, omelette with vegetables, bread loaf. Separately water.
Metal cutlery with embossed airline logo. The package with them slipped out unsuccessfully and, falling, disappeared somewhere between the seats. I had to ask for an additional set:
And the omelette, by the way, turned out to be very good:
As we ate it, it turned out that under the omelette and vegetables, the bottom was lined with mushrooms in one layer:
I finished my breakfast with fruits and tea:
The surface of the tray was covered with some special material, when you touch it with your finger you don’t feel anything unusual, but the plastic cups and plates stuck to it tightly, like Velcro.
After eating breakfast, they didn’t clean it up for a long time. The neighbor on the edge, the one who initially cheekily sat in my place, asked my companion to put her tray on top of hers - she wanted to go to the toilet. Having returned to her place, she was no less impudent and did not take him back to her place. Seeing such a thing, I decided to improvise: with a certain intention, I placed my tray on top of the third row in such a way that if the entire structure was destined to collapse, it would definitely be in its direction. Moreover, the first to land on her white jacket, in accordance with the law of universal gravitation, would be my plate with the remains of the sauce, used forks/knives and napkins. Even if this entire seemingly shaky frame had slid onto my companion, she would not have suffered much, since she was covered with a blanket:
For the first time in my flights, I wanted turbulence to appear. But alas, it only happens when you don't expect it. And despite the apparent shakyness, this man-made composition turned out to be very stable and refused to crumble. It survived until the moment when the flight attendant deftly disassembled it and placed it in the scrap yard.
The plane crossed almost the entire Saudi Arabia from east to west and, judging by the track, was approaching Mecca:
And indeed, there she appeared:
As we flew along the main Muslim city, its central part was revealed - two highways diverging from the center appeared. The one on the left in the photo, along which skyscrapers were visible - Al Taif road. To the right is Al Masjid Al Haram road. In the center of the city, to the left of the place where they almost converged, through the undeveloped part one could see the main symbol of Mecca - the Clock Tower - the famous skyscraper with a huge clock. There was a small cloud in its projection, but it was still perfectly visible and from a cruising altitude it amazed with its enormous size:
I increased the zoom, trying to see the largest in the world and the most important mosque among Muslims, Al-Haram, next to the Clock Tower, but as we got closer, the quality of the picture was lost and it was difficult to make out where and what was:
Looking towards the horizon at the limit of vision, one could see the second city of Saudi Arabia - Jeddah.
The coast of the Red Sea appeared, in front of which a large field/solar battery station was set up:
While the board flew over the Red Sea, crossing it almost later, it was decided to visit the toilet in order to assess its functionality and cleanliness. Fortunately, there were no volunteers, the toilets were free. I walk along the aisle, noting that many passengers have shaded their windows due to the excessively bright sun:
The toilet proved to be not only clean, but even more so - untouched by time. However, this is understandable, and the merit in this is not the neatness of the passengers, but the age of the board, which, translated into human life expectancy, was still an infant. No scuffs, scratches, or faded paint. If it weren’t for the splashes of water left over from previous visitors, one would think that I was the first passenger to visit this laboratory. As for the practical side of the issue, only branded soap was available, the compartment for the second bottle (whatever it was intended for) was empty. Perhaps there was no perfume there. Although I won’t be particularly picky: for the on-board toilet, apart from soap, napkins and toilet paper, you don’t really need anything. Enough words, just look at the photo:
Having returned from the toilet, I noticed the color of the water surface below us - the Red Sea actually turned out to be bright blue:
The flight track led the board to the territory of Sudan, the coast of which could already be seen. But now planes are avoiding this state. As if confirming this, the plane turned and deviated to the south, flying into African territory over Eritrea. In the photo below, the coast in the upper third of the photo is Sudan, below is Eritrea:
The coast of this, in the political aspect of a very young country, looked deserted and lifeless:
Oh, but in this place you can build a luxurious resort area..
But Eritrea is not only a lifeless desert. About fifty kilometers from the coast, mountains appeared, which, as we moved deeper into the continent, appeared below us:
Having flown through the mountain range, populated areas appeared. The capital of the country, Asmara, was visible to passengers sitting on the port side. I got to observe small towns and villages:
The plane passed the halfway point almost at the border of Eritrea with Ethiopia:
After about half an hour of the flight, passengers were in for a pleasant surprise in the form of a small snack. Each was given two packs of crackers, packed in branded bags:
The crackers, as it turned out, were very tasty, but also heavily seasoned with salt:
Salt initiated thirst, so they were immediately offered to drink it down - from plain water to red wine. I took regular sparkling water:
While sipping water, I looked around the earth: Ethiopia is densely populated and almost everywhere my eye clung to populated areas:
After drinking, I wanted more, but the flight attendants rolled the cart to the beginning of the cabin. He got up from his seat and went to the kitchen to ask for a drink there. But the kitchen owners were not there. I was embarrassed to serve myself, although I had the opportunity and choice:
I waited for the flight attendant, drank right there in the kitchen, and returned to my seat. I noted the habit of some Kenyans not to take off their winter hats either indoors or in warm weather:
And again I clung to the window - we are flying over the city of Arba Minch, located in the south of the country. This is a small city in Ethiopia with its own airport, the strip of which was clearly visible below. Located on the shores of Lake Abaya, the waters of which from a cruising height were seen as muddy:
Beyond this lake spreads its waters another - Chamo, teeming with Nile crocodiles and hippopotamuses:
Approximately after 15 minutes after that we reached the border of Ethiopia and Kenya. From here it was about 600 kilometers to Nairobi and the flight was less than an hour:
Northwestern Kenya is sparsely populated. Below, through the gaps in the clouds, no matter how hard I tried to look for signs of habitability, I didn’t notice anything:
An interesting point: after crossing the border, the plane took a few degrees to the right, although Nairobi, on the contrary, was to the left of the heading. The explanation for this is simple: continuing to fly straight, the flight track would take the plane to the second peak of Africa, more than 5 km high. Thus, turning away and flying a little away from our destination, we reached the second largest lake in Kenya - Turkana (old name Rudolf). The waters of the southern part of the lake with the South Island visible opened before me:
I saw this lake for the first time. I’ve never visited it, but it’s an underrated place in Kenya. They say it contains very tasty fish, telapia. Rarely do tourists get to these places, it’s too far from Nairobi.
I had just managed to take a photo of the lake when we fell into a haze and began to shake.
We began to descend. The haze passed, but thick cumulus clouds appeared, over which they flew for some time:
Then suddenly the clouds parted and I saw familiar places - Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island (it has this shape):
These places are already a distinct tourist area in Kenya. Crescent island is filled with local flora and fauna, the lake itself is filled with hippos. There are many hotels along the lake, some of them of the highest level.
I was surprised when I saw the familiar Naivasha. Surprised by how it turns out, we will be landing while flying over Nairobi from the west. Usually, when flying from the Gulf countries, the flyover occurs from the east. But again, we are flying on a Gulf Air plane, which from the very beginning chose a trajectory different from that of, for example, Emirates.
Entering this trajectory, a smooth left turn began. We flew over a hilly area, and the difference in altitude was clearly noticeable:
In the top photo, Ngong Hills are the hills south of Nairobi, where residents of the capital go hiking on weekends.
The plane completed a turn and went straight before landing. This was the flight path before landing:
After reaching the straight line, Nairobi National Park passed below us. And again, for the umpteenth time, flying over it before landing, I tried to look at the giraffes. And again I didn’t see any giraffes or other large animals:
I flashed Mombasa Road (the highway leading to Mombasa), the car inspection area before entering the airport. There were only a few seconds left before landing:
The airport appeared:
We reached the beginning of the runway:
We landed at 14:17:
On The runway showed a round terminal:
Wing mechanization at work:
Not reaching the end of the runway, we turned onto one of the tracks:
Now we are driving parallel to the runway in the opposite direction. Some important bird does not react in any way to the noise of the plane and calmly walks along the grass between the runway and the taxiway:
A Daallo Airlines B737 landed behind us, filmed it on the run:
We taxied to the parking lot, where the wide-body sides appeared Qatar, Ethiopian and Kenya Airways. The Kenyan was in motion - he was taxiing to the starting point:
We parked next to the Qatari:
After stopping, 5 minutes later we went to the exit:
After the flight
I think I already noted in my reviews that at Nairobi airport, airlines from the Persian Gulf countries stop near the jet bridges, but do not connect with them. Exit is via a mobile ladder, and thus you can immediately take a deep breath of African air:
The temperature is just right - a comfortable 20 degrees. At the moment of leaving the plane, another representative of the Persian Gulf was moving along the taxiway towards the parking lot, clearly intending to take a seat next to us:
Having gone down the ramp, passengers are directed to a bus standing at the terminal to the deafening whistle and roar of engines of a Boeing 777 Emirates parking next to us, which has taken a place to the left of our side:
Passengers were packed onto the bus like sardines. Having set off, we drive past the Emirates Boeing. I am surprised to see that a telebridge is being brought up to him. Really? For once, this happened:
While we were on the bus, the sun disappeared behind a cloud, and the surrounding picture dimmed:
They drove us to the terminal. Well, how about the terminal... At this point, the arrivals area was more like a large barn or barn. Both outside and with its internal contents:
Immediately behind the entrance is passport control:
after passing through which we find ourselves in a rather extensive - in the context of the perimeter of the barn - baggage claim area:
Defects in linoleum are covered with sheet iron - so that it is certain and without repair. Walking along it, the sheets played sonorously underfoot. The ceiling is stretched:
One suitcase appeared quickly, but the second one had to wait for quite a long time:
I don’t like to fly with luggage precisely because of such moments - a long wait for luggage, when it seems that it is either lost or left in the departure area or transfer airport.
Baggage is received, then there is a line for customs inspection. This time they asked us to take carry-on luggage rather than suitcases through the scanner. I was already anticipating the traditional, corrosive inspection, but we went through customs without any problems - they didn’t even ask to show the contents of the bags and didn’t ask questions like where you were coming from, what you were bringing, etc. I didn’t film this process so as not to run into trouble. Next is the exit from the barn:
At the exit we were met, we loaded ourselves and our suitcases, we are going home:
In conclusion - the full track of our flight:
And yes, may the airline forgive me for a minor dirty trick.
I know that there are people who like to take some small thing as a souvenir of the flight. I remember many years ago I collected anti-Makassars with airline logos - they were disposable anyway. But then the interest died down and the props themselves are no longer available on all flights. Some people remember safety instructions, others don’t even disdain blankets. But for some time now I have switched to collecting metal cutlery with airline logos. A set of cutlery that had fallen during serving was subsequently found, opened, and one of the cutlery somehow accidentally ended up in hand luggage. So after this voyage the collection was replenished and now looks like this:
Conclusion
Departure airport, Bahrain. The airport (historically) is famous primarily for hosting the first commercial flight of the Concorde supersonic aircraft, which flew from London. This happened back in 1976, in the month of January. Oddly enough, I did not see any memorable information or mention of this in the modern terminal (stand, installation and other similar things). This is probably the only disadvantage of this airport). Although no, below I’ll note a couple more unpleasant little things.
With its interior decoration alone, it - I mean the terminal - deserves the highest rating. First of all, it's relatively new. The modern terminal building will open in 2021. Secondly, in the style of the rich Gulf countries, it looks luxurious. Thirdly, and this is the practical side, the terminal is logistically and functionally convenient. Clear signs, pleasant-looking spacious spaces, luxurious soft waiting chairs, no cramping. These are advantages, and significant ones at that. And now the cons. On the negative side, I would highlight the high prices in local cafes. But! Firstly, this detail is typical for all major Gulf airports, be it DXB or Qatar's Hamad, and secondly, Bahrain itself is a country with high prices. Another critical one: “disposable” Internet.
Despite these little things, the overall rating for the airport is 5 points.
Gulf Air airline. I also rate 5 points, and according to all criteria: adherence to the schedule (departure half an hour later was not critical, since we arrived 20 minutes earlier), quality and quantity of on-board food, comfort (distance between seats), work of flight attendants, condition board (which turned out to be practically from the factory).
Joma Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi. The arrival area evokes melancholy, but we will leave it without rating, since a separate review from this series is planned about departure from it, and there it will be described in the smallest detail.
Thanks to everyone for reading and ratings!
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