Transport - Central Asia - page 474

KLM (www.klm.com; airline
code KL; hub Schiphol Airport,
Amsterdam) Five weekly to
Almaty.
Korean Air (www.koreanair.
com; airline code KE; hub
Seoul) To Tashkent four
times weekly.
Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.
com; airline code LH; hub Frank-
furt) To Almaty, Astana and
Ashgabat (via Baku).
Pegasus Airlines (www.
flypgs.com; airline code PC;
hub İstanbul Gokcen) Budget
Turkish airline flying to
Almaty and Bishkek.
Rossiya Russian Airlines
(www.rossiya-airlines.com;
airline code FV; hub St Peters-
burg) To Almaty, Astana,
Dushanbe, Karaganda, Kho-
jand, Samarkand, Tashkent,
Urgench and Bishkek, plus
maybe Namangan, Fergana
and Osh.
Sibir (S7) Airlines (www.
s7.ru; airline code S7; hub
Novosibirsk) Novosibirsk
to Almaty, Bishkek, Dush-
anbe, Fergana, Shymkent,
Tashkent; flies Moscow to
Ashgabat, Khojand, Osh,
Pavlodar, Urgench and Ust-
Kamenogorsk.
Transaero (www.transaero.
ru; airline code UN; hub
Domodedovo Airport,
Moscow) To Almaty, Astana,
Atyrau, Aktau, Karaganda,
Kostanay, Shymkent, Uralsk,
Tashkent and Bukhara.
Turkish Airlines (www.
turkishairlines.com; airline code
TK; hub İstanbul) To Tashkent,
Ashgabat, Almaty, Astana,
Bishkek, Dushanbe and Osh.

Ukraine International
Airlines (www.flyuia.com;
airline code PS; hub Kiev) To
Almaty, Astana and Bishkek.
Tickets
Finding flights to Central
Asia isn't always easy, as
travel agents are generally
unaware of the region and
many don't book flights on
Russian or Central Asian
airlines.
¨ Contact the airlines
directly for schedules and
contact details of their
consolidators, or sales
agents, who often sell the
airlines' tickets cheaper than
the airlines themselves.
¨ Consider paying a little
extra for a reliable airline
such as KLM or Turkish
Airlines, rather than a
cash-strapped one such as
Tajik Air.
¨ Always check how many
stopovers there are, how
long these are and what
time the flight arrives: many
airlines arrive in the dead
of night.
¨ Specialist agencies like
www.alternativeairlines.
com can often book Central
Asian airline tickets when
others can't.
Visa Checks
You can buy air tickets with-
out a visa but in most places
outside Central Asia you will
have trouble getting on a
plane without one (with the
exception of Kyrgyzstan).
Airlines are obliged to fly
anyone rejected because of

improper papers back home
and are fined, so check-in
staff tend to act like immigra-
tion officers.
If you have made arrange-
ments to get a visa on ar-
rival, have your LOI handy at
check-in and check with the
airline beforehand.
Airline Safety
Aeroflot, the former Soviet
state airline, was decentral-
ised into around 400 splinter
airlines and many of these
'baby-flots' now have the
worst regional safety record
in the world, due to poor
maintenance, ageing aircraft
and gross overloading.
In general though, the
main Central Asian carriers
have lifted their services
towards international safety
standards, at least on inter-
national routes.
¨ In 1993 a Tajik Air Yak-40
crashed on take-off from
Khorog; it had 81 passengers
in its 28 seats.
¨ In 1997 another Tajik Air
plane crashed in Sharjah,
killing 85 passengers.
¨ In 2004 an Uzbekistan
Airways Yak-42 crashed in
Termiz killing 37 passengers.
¨ In 2013 21 passengers died
when a SCAT Airlines flight
from Kokshetau to Almaty
crashed during low visibility.
Most Kazakh airlines (except
Air Astana) and all Kyrgyz
airlines are currently banned
from flying into EU airspace.
See www.airsafe.com/
events/airlines/fsu.htm for

CLIMATE CHANGE & TRAVEL
Every form of transport that relies on carbon-based fuel generates CO 2 , the main cause of
human-induced climate change. Modern travel is dependent on aeroplaces, which might
use less fuel per kilometre per person than mot cars but travel much greater ditances.
The altitude at which aircraft emit gases (including CO 2 ) and particles also contributes to
their climate change impact. Many websites ofer 'carbon calculators' that allow people to
etimate the carbon emissions generated by their journey and, for those who wish to do
so, to ofset the impact of the greenhouse gases emitted with contributions to portfolios
of climate-friendly initiatives throughout the world. Lonely Planet ofsets the carbon foot-
print of all taf and author travel.