Flying Aeroflot

A colleague of mine had the misfortune to fly Aeroflot to Moscow because he all the BA flights were full. He had a terrible flight, largely because he was surrounded by Russians who became totally tanked up on vodka in the first hour of the flight and got progressively louder as the flight went on.

Looks like the stereotypes are not always wrong...
 
In February 2011, I did London > Moscow, Moscow > Havana, and the same thing coming back the other way, all with Aeroflot. That's over thirty hours on board, with them.

I couldn't fault them, I had a great experience, and had the best airline food I have ever eaten (though, this isn't saying much). This was after hearing nothing but horror stories, as well.
 
You guys are forgetting that most Russian and CIS airlines are phasing out/have phased out their Soviet era aircraft such as the Tu-154, Yak-42, Il-62, etc and are replacing them with Western aircraft, so in terms of safety, and barring pilot error, you're in no more danger than you are when flying with a European legacy carrier (legacy, as in BA, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa... NOT Ryanair ;) I'd rather fly in a 45 year old Il-62 than in one of their cattle wagons)

P.S.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Russian aircraft by the way. It's a hugely exaggerated and incorrect preconception us Westerners have of their kit.
 
Ahleckz said:
What's Sheremetyevo like? I've only ever used Domodedovo, and it's a horrible place.

Haven't used the airline myself, but my father used them occasionally and said that they were fine. Though, he was used to the **** that is Air France.

Should be free booze and snacks on Aeroflot right? Just have a few of them, and then it doesn't matter who you're flying with!
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The new terminal at Sheremetyevo is as nice as any at a Western airport. The old one, the one built for the Moscow Olympics in the 80's is bloody awful.

Aeroflot themselves were pretty good, the food on their flight was better than the KLM flight i took to get there.
 
Shashman said:
You guys are forgetting that most Russian and CIS airlines are phasing out/have phased out their Soviet era aircraft such as the Tu-154, Yak-42, Il-62, etc and are replacing them with Western aircraft, so in terms of safety, and barring pilot error, you're in no more danger than you are when flying with a European legacy carrier (legacy, as in BA, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa... NOT Ryanair ;) I'd rather fly in a 45 year old Il-62 than in one of their cattle wagons)

P.S.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Russian aircraft by the way. It's a hugely exaggerated and incorrect preconception us Westerners have of their kit.
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I have spent a lot of time in CIS countries and flying in between them, and am fully up to date with which airlines fly which types of aircraft because my company has an extensive list of who I can and can't fly with. Most of the airlines still fly Tupolev, Ilushin and Antonov aircraft between states. Its only long haul flights where they use Boeing and Airbus, and most of the time they are ancient 757's, 767's, 737-400's etc. The only 2 airlines I actually didnt mind flying with were Azerbaijan Airlines and Air Astana. Their only saving grace is that you can get totally tanked up on alcohol and forget about how **** the service is.
There might be nothing wrong with russian aircraft, but it's the maintenance, or lack of it that makes it all start going wrong.
 
panthro said:
I have spent a lot of time in CIS countries and flying in between them, and am fully up to date with which airlines fly which types of aircraft because my company has an extensive list of who I can and can't fly with. Most of the airlines still fly Tupolev, Ilushin and Antonov aircraft between states. Its only long haul flights where they use Boeing and Airbus, and most of the time they are ancient 757's, 767's, 737-400's etc. The only 2 airlines I actually didnt mind flying with were Azerbaijan Airlines and Air Astana. Their only saving grace is that you can get totally tanked up on alcohol and forget about how **** the service is.
There might be nothing wrong with russian aircraft, but it's the maintenance, or lack of it that makes it all start going wrong.
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I think Aeroflop are kinda luxury from the horror stories of airlines in Nigeria
 
panthro said:
There might be nothing wrong with russian aircraft, but it's the maintenance, or lack of it that makes it all start going wrong.
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So you're saying that there are more aviation incidents in Russia and the CIS, due to poor maintenance than in the Western world? Well that's news to me, and I'm pretty clued up on aviation.

If that's the case, then surely this document should be full of CIS airlines? Maybe your company should do a bit more research ;)
 
Shashman said:
So you're saying that there are more aviation incidents in Russia and the CIS, due to poor maintenance than in the Western world? Well that's news to me, and I'm pretty clued up on aviation.

If that's the case, then surely this document should be full of CIS airlines? Maybe your company should do a bit more research ;)
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Plenty of airlines manipulate their fleets to provide a legal service into the EU but operate a shocking service within their own regions. Aeroflot might operate safely into the EU (although, controlling them regularly, they wouldn't be my airline of choice) but within Russia their standards are undoubtedly held to a much lower standard. It's the same with a lot of Eastern Bloc and African airlines.
 
On what basis are you making these sweeping assumptions though? Statistically, there are more aviation incidents in the Western world than in the CIS
 
Shashman said:
On what basis are you making these sweeping assumptions though? Statistically, there are more aviation incidents in the Western world than in the CIS, so you're wrong?
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First hand experience and second hand experience from being quite immersed in the aviation industry.
 
Shashman said:
In what way? Again, statistics speak for themselves
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Statistics only paint part of the picture. Having flown in that part of the world and using my experience as a pilot and an air traffic controller, I am quite uncomfortable with some of the operational procedures frequently exercised there. I'll go into deeper detail if I get some free time tomorrow.

It's quite a common opinion throughout the industry that some of the Russian and Eastern operators are an accident waiting to happen. In terms of safetly culture, human factors appreciation and MCRM, they are lightyears behind
 
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