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1994: LOS-SOF-LHR-SOF-LOS: My Aviation Dream Takes Wing!

 
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 438
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:06 am    Post subject: 1994: LOS-SOF-LHR-SOF-LOS: My Aviation Dream Takes Wing! Reply with quote

Looking back if I have to list five flights that stand out because they either had interesting routing or rare aircraft/ airport or excellent service, the following five comes to my mind:

1. Aeroflot LHR- SVO using Ilyushin 86 in 1996
2. Uzbekistan Airways NMA- TAS using Yak-40 in 2002
3. Malev SVO- BUD using Tupolev-134 in 1997
4. Royal Jordanian SVO-AMM- BOM (unforgettable service on AMM-BOM leg) in 1998
5. Balkan LOS- SOF- LHR- SOF- LOS using A320 in 1994

I may be missing some other memorable flights I took over the years but they are not popping up in my ever shrinking brain at this moment. I will write about #5 trip today not only because it’s the oldest in the list here but because of Balkan’s (LZ) ability to connect two continents with its newer A320’s at that time.

Background:

Year 1994. I had left shores of India not long back and working out of a modern cosmopolitan city called Lagos. Lagos in the nineties had modern infrastructure like nice roads, shopping malls and a big expatriate community. Huge Sindhi population had good grip on local commerce but all their bad deeds (in terms of money laundering etc.) were reflected on the whole Indian population. If Lebanese were the pioneers in corruption, Sindhis were not far behind.

Aviation scene was very vibrant. All big players were flying in to LOS in those days including now defunct Sabena, Swissair, Varig, Air Afrique to name a few. In fact my office was next to the city office of Air Afrique. It was a unique airline shared by quite a few West African countries who also shared a common currency called CFA Franc. I used to see a lot of Pilots, cabin crew drop by before or after their flights. AI pilots ending up in infamous Kirikiri jail in Lagos on drug related charges was still vivid in the memory of local Indian expatriate community.

BA, AF, KL all European biggies used to send their bigger aircraft to LOS. But due to restriction on currency conversion, airlines always complained that they were not making money on that route. Buying ticket in Naira (local currency) was so cheap (when converted to USD) that most of the expatriate community and rich locals used to fly First or Business class only! I was not so lucky Sad

Also, there was the flag carrier, Nigerian Airways (WT). It was by then become a glaring example of what corruption and mismanagement can do to an airline. Schedules were never maintained. There were stories that a WT aircraft crash landed (but safely) on a desert with bullet holes when it was flying over a war-torn West African nation. The only flight that had some regularity was their LGW (or may be LHR) flight. One of my expatriate friend had to take that flight one time, he said upon landing all passengers were subjected to mandatory sniffer dog checking for drugs by British customs guys. It didn’t matter whether you are black, white or brown.

So in 1994 when time came to visit India, my third annual holiday, a trip was also planned around same time to go to London for a business meeting. I requested my employer to add the two destinations in one trip which they agreed to do. I being a “free will” traveler, I closely held the privilege to select my airline under my control.

I zeroed in on Balkan (LZ) mainly because I wanted to get a feeling of an east European airline operating in Africa. The other airline if I remember correctly would be Aeroflot (SU) who in addition to LOS were also flying to nearby Coutonou (COO), Benin. I don’t remember whether it was tag along or separate flights.

This particular LZ aircraft (newer A320) used to do Sofia- Tunis (tech stop) - Lagos- Harare- Johannesburg and return (with no stop at Tunis). I can’t recall whether HRE was part of stopovers on my incoming flight. There may be few small errors in this trip report but that’s simply because of my poor record keeping and shrinking memory space! Anyway, I told my office that I will fly LZ to go to London.

After two decades when I am flipping thru my ticket copy which I brought back from Calcutta this year, I discover that it was a PTA ticket. That slowly reminds me that my office couldn’t buy it with Naira, so got a PTA sent from Tradewings, a travel agency in London. Also I discover that an M class (must be economy) ticket cost was GBP1091 or USD 1738 in 1994!! Today at that price I can fly to YYZ-LHR return in discounted Business class! Where everything else that we need in our daily lives has become pricier, air travel has indeed become cheaper. We are really indebted to Richard Branson & Stelios Haji- Ioannou for that!

I also thought this is my chance for a quick sightseeing trip of Sofia while in transit. So I applied for a visa at Bulgarian embassy in Lagos. On the day of my appointment, I found myself surrounded by lot of Nigerians in the waiting room who were eagerly waiting for their interview. I was quite surprised to see so many visa applicants eager to go to Bulgaria. When my turn came for interview the things got clearer. The officer was surprised to see an Indian applying for a visa from Lagos to visit Bulgaria. When I explained, he said a transit visa for 30 hours would be sufficient for my purpose. When asked, he explained that locals are trying to use this flight to land in Bulgaria and find their way to either Turkey or Greece. He also said some of them regularly try to smuggle drugs from Africa to Europe.

Eventually the PTA arrived and the local Balkan office issued my ticket also visa was collected. All set for the trip.







Flights:

Date: Nov 6 1994
Flight: LZ 598
Airline: Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
Route: LOS- SOF
Dep: 2230
Arr: Don’t remember 
Aircraft: A320


After my driver dropped me off, all went well at the chaotic LOS airport in terms of customs and immigration. I took a seat at the very crowded holding area. Since most of the flight to Europe departed in the evening/night, they all started arriving. Then arrived my Balkan A320, smallest in the parking lot Sad either from HRE or JNB. Once the aircraft parked, I distinctly remember the Pilots came down using a staircase and started checking garbage bags that were getting unloaded using pencil torches. I couldn’t figure out why they were doing that at that time but at the end of the trip I knew they were looking for any drugs were being smuggled into.



I don’t remember anything about the flight except that we landed on a foggy gloomy morning in Sofia. While in transit, I clearly remember seeing an Armenian Airlines An-12 leaving the gate and heading towards taxiway while making huge noise from its engaged propeller engine. That noise became my morning alarm bell in Tashkent many years after when every morning Uzbekistan Airways (HY) used to crank up one of their An-12 engines for flights to nearby domestic destinations. My house was at least 5 km away from TAS airport!

Also for first time, I came face to face with stoic faced, blonde haired, middle aged ladies who were manning the check in desks/ immigration booths at SOF. No questions, no clarifications. Show your ticket collect your boarding pass and let the next person in line hit the wall! Little I knew at that time that I have to encounter these ladies on a daily basis for a good part of my working life in not so distant future!

Also I met a group of Tamil passengers in transit area who were held up there for quite long. They were trying to go to Europe but were stopped at SOF. LZ was flying to Colombo at that time may be only once a week so they will be send back by next flight.

Date: Nov 7 1994
Flight: LZ 495
Airline: Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
Route: SOF- LHR
Dep: 1100
Arr: Don’t remember Smile
Aircraft: A320


Two things I remember about this flight. One, the cockpit door was not shut when the plane took off the ground so I could see from my aisle seat a young Bulgarian pilot in action taking us off the ground in real time. Second, the flight was half empty.

Soccer fans would remember that Bulgaria reached to the semifinal in 1994 world cup so when I picked up the inflight magazine, it was full with their soccer team’s accomplishments. How do I remember? Smile Well I took with me a copy from the aircraft and flipped thru the pages in March this year when I was in CCU.

In London

This was my second time in London. From my first trip I fell in love with numerous travel stores and airlines offices that London offered in and around Piccadilly Circus stretching up to Tottenham Court Road. In my free time I used to visit as many of them as I could. I remember in this trip I visited quite a few exotic airline offices like Libyan Arab airlines, Air Algerie, Air Mauritius to name a few. Typically I entered an airline office, looked around, looked for any aircraft model on display, collect invariably their Time table and any brochure about their country and tourist destinations. Some of them even had their inflight magazine displayed. By the time I left London, I have an additional handbag to carry with me to Calcutta, my dumping ground Smile. You can easily imagine the amount of junk  I collected over the years. But they are still there in my CCU apartment for me to flip thru whenever I go to India to bring back those pleasant memories.

In that trip I tried to enter the El Al office. Seeing door is locked I pulled the door again but it didn’t open. Strange, I thought. A man comes reluctantly to the door and asks me what I have to do there, I expressed my intention but he was not willing to let me in. I also didn’t wait longer and left for my next hunt. Little did I know about complicated history of Middle East and paranoia associated, at that time.

I also had to collect a ticket from an impressive travel company at that time, called Trail Finders for my onward journey to India on LH (LHR-FRA-BOM-FRA-LHR). From BOM I flew a newly born airline called Jet airways to CCU. That too in Business class!

In Calcutta airport, guess what I see, a Balkan aircraft (A320) is parked far from the gate that has arrived from BAH part of SOF-BAH-CCU routing. If I didn’t have to go to London, I could have come by this flight connecting from LOS. All kinds of possibilities; that’s what I like about air travel.


Date: Dec 10 1994
Flight: LZ 496
Airline: Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
Route: LHR- SOF
Dep: 1430
Arr: 1935
Aircraft: A320




After about a month I come back to London to return to Lagos. I think I had timed incoming LH FRA- LHR flight in a way that I didn’t have long waiting time for my LZ LHR-SOF flight. All worked out well. Again I land in SOF but this time I have about 5 hours in hand between flights. So I used my transit visa and got out of the airport for a quick sightseeing of Sofia. Now I don’t exactly recall why I couldn’t do a full day stay in Sofia as originally planned and also was it planned with my outbound or inbound trip. But it didn’t happen as I planned that I remember clearly.

Anyway I grabbed a taxi and asked how much he will charge for a ride to Rila Monastry (Popular destination in Bulgaria) and back which I thought somewhere in Sofia. The driver asked for an exorbitant amount and then while discussing I realized the monastery is about 2 hours’ drive from Sofia. Sofia was the first soviet influenced city that I set my foot in. I remember he showed me quite a few churches and cathedrals, one of them Alexander Nevski stood out. Also I remember wide streets and typical soviet style government buildings. Driver took me to a souvenir shop, I bought few local handmade handicrafts. He dropped me off to the airport just in time for my last leg of flights.


Date: Dec 11 1994
Flight: LZ 597
Airline: Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
Route: SOF- LOS
Dep: 0030
Arr: 0630
Aircraft: A320


Being late night flight I dozed off after dinner but quickly woke up by announcement that we would be landing shortly at Tunis (TUN). What? I didn’t bargain for this but I see the plane descending in brightly lighted Tunis airport. Didn’t know what is called technical stop then but it was not a tech stop per se. In fact few passengers disembarked and their luggage got retrieved while the plane stood far from the gate. Rest was uneventful. On a sunny pleasant morning I arrived at chaotic Lagos for one more year of daily hustle and bustle.

Thanks for reading, folks! No pictures hence the long details Smile.
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Last edited by PAL@YWG on Fri Aug 21, 2015 8:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In one word, E-X-O-T-I-C!
Samir-da: it was simply fascinating to read this TR, and go through pictures of your memorabilia! Exotic places, exotic routings, and usually exotic aircraft as well, and witty comments and fabulous descriptions: we know we have a Mr.Pal report on our hands.
Balkan Bulgarian: somehow the very name gives memories of a smokey An-12 cargo plane which I seem to have seen around. To cover this exotic airline and that too in 1994, on a routing which today would sound just a bit too exotic: inter-con on an A320.
Interesting comments about business in Lagos, and checks around the airport!
Your memorabilia stashed up in your Calcutta home reminds me of such utilisation of storage space at my parents' place, before space ran out, and out went most of these things. Ex-commie officials, passengers around, the El Al office experience, the Sofia tour, the unscheduled Tunis halt...all this is what we look forward to your descriptions for an out-of-the-ordinary experience.
The other 4 trips look just a bit too exciting for us: please share thee with us as well! Thank you once again for taking the time, and the effort to pen these memories down. You are not the only one, Sir: most of the important matter in our heads are unfortunately shrinking as well, as penning down these memories is essential, for posterity! And Sir, please make it more than these four.
May you always remain a `free-will' traveller, and continue to enthrall us with your tales. We absolutely love your writing, please keep it coming!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Pal, your trip report helped me to travel down the memory lane. The time period you described ( around 1994 ) was one of darkest period in history of Kolkata airport. There were few international flights i.e. Aeroflot, RJ, JAT, Thai ,Biman and Singapore. Both domestic and international flights from same cowshed terminal. The newer terminal was still under construction. But I remember a lot of airlines from East bloc countries used fly like Tarom, JAT, MALEV, LOT ( ? ) and people used to fly just because they were cheap and they had no other options. But now situation have changed by ME3 group of airlines. Do you know what happened to those East bloc airlines? Again your TR is enjoyable and please keep it coming. Very Happy
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Like Sumantra commented this is pure EXOTIC. Thank you for detailed report and a strong memory to note all of this down.

Sri_Bom
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ameya
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fantastic Exotic TR Sir. Was fun to read . . Lagos - what a destination !

Thanks for remembering so much and typing it out
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jbalonso777
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 5:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whoa, a trip report from before I was even born!
Thanks for sharing this absolute gem with us! It was really awesome to read this...especially with the events surrounding the world at that point of time! Awesome. Truly awesome! Very Happy

Any chance of a TR with the Ilyushin planes? Those sound like fun!

Regards
Jish
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PAL@YWG
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sumantra, Ameya, Jishnu & Sri_bom,

Thank you for your kind words! Really appreciate it!

Sabya99,
Talk about aviation scene at CCU Smile In the 80's I used to do meet & greet for one of my relatives who lives in Germany. He preferred RJ over any other airlines. But CCU also had SU (SVO-TAS-CCU, later on it become SVO- SHJ-CCU and then SVO-DEL-CCU with 332), Tarom twice a week (CCU- OTP), before that JAT (CCU- BEG) I heard with DC-10 sometimes and LZ I mentioned in my TR. No Malev or LOT though. Saw a few times RJ L-1015 taking off from CCU. What a majestic aircraft and that too in RJ colours!
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sabya99
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my relative also took RJ flight from CCU to JFK and he said inflight service was superb. We all miss RJ now! But JAT, Tarom, Balkan, SV flights are nothing significant. I call that period dark decade of international flight of Kolkata airport!
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