Kazakhstan: Thoughts on transiting through Nur-Sultan / Astana

Kazakh flag display, Nur-Sultan

Kazakhstan isn't a very common tourist destination. It didn't really even cross my radar until I noticed that the cheapest flight back to the UK from China was with Air Astana, the national airline of Kazakhstan, with a 8 hour flight transfer in the national capital, Nur-Sultan. As price is essentially the only factor that decides which airline I fly with, I therefore returned from my couple of weeks in East Asia via Kazakhstan. 

Check-in at Beijing Capital airport, even more chaotic than normal

The flight from Beijing airport (PEK) was timed to leave at 0255 local time, with a flight duration of 5h55. First, though, came check-in: most of my commercial flying these days is with Ryanair, so it's now rare for me to check-in at a physical desk with hold baggage. I've got used to the ruthless efficiency of low-cost airlines, so the check-in experience with Air Astana was particularly unusual: nearly all the Kazakhs on the flight were checking in large, bulky boxes of unknown things in addition to their usual-sized hold suitcases. My usual practice is to only travel with a backpack, and usually bring back few (if any) souvenirs, so this was a bit strange. Even more so was that the luggage allowance was only 20kg, as opposed to the 23kg or 30kg with most other airlines, so I'm not entirely sure how they were all bringing their boxes with them back to Kazakhstan without paying a fortune in excess baggage fees. 

The late-night departure was tiring, and even more so with a further slight delay, but the overnight flight together with the -2h time difference meant a night's sleep and then arrival in Kazakhstan at an almost-sensible 0650 local time. I did briefly wake up while a meal service trolley was bring an early-morning breakfast service through the cabin, though I decided to go back to sleep instead of eating - I never normally turn down food, but at this point getting more sleep was more important than eating at an appetite-less time. The Air Astana seats did have individual USB charge points, which came in very useful for the next day's tourism. 

Airbus A321 arrival at TSE

We arrived at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport (TSE) roughly on time. The airport is named after the country's president for 29 years, who had first assumed the presidency when Kazakhstan was still a republic of the Soviet Union but who had just stepped down a few months earlier - one of the longest-serving leaders in the world. The airport's IATA code is a clue to the city's history: it referred to the Soviet-era name of the city, Tselinograd (Russian Целиноград), since renamed. 

The city has actually been renamed a whole 5 times since its foundation in 1830: first founded that year as Akmoly as a Cossack fortification, then renamed Akmolinsk (Акмолинск) two years later when it was made a town in 1832, then in 1961 to Tselinograd (Целиноград, tselina being a name for fertile but undeveloped soil) named after Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign to solve the Soviet Union's food shortages by developing agriculture in formerly unpopulated parts of the country. 

But then came independence, and in 1992 the young nation renamed the city back to Akmola, a Kazakh-ised version of the original name. This wasn't to last, as the city was then renamed again in 1998 to Astana (meaning capital) when the Kazakh national capital was moved from Almaty. But even this wasn't enough renaming, as in 2019 the new president decided on his first day of office to rename the city after the outgoing president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. 

How long will the current name last, given that the previous five names have lasted an average of 37.8 years? Well, Nursultan Nazarbayev retains the title "Leader of the Nation" and remains the Chairman-for-Life of the Security Council of Kazakhstan. He won his last election with a figure of 98% of the vote. He must be very popular. 

Kazakhstan tries so hard to get rid of its Borat stereotype, but then it goes and has an airline named SCAT Airlines. It stands for Special Category Air Transport, but most English-speakers won't think of that when they see the acronym in huge letters across its aircraft. It actually is the number-two airline in Kazakhstan. 

It seemed that there were quite a few (~20) people who were taking the same flight transfer from Beijing to London and who had had similar ideas on what to do in the intervening 8 hours: go around the city of Nur-Sultan. Helpfully, the airport staff had shepherded us to go through immigration control together as a large group, which meant that we organically organised ourselves into like-minded groups such that the elderly and young families were together, while the young people formed our own groups. I ended up with two blokes going to the UK to study - they were very pleasant, and it was definitely nice to have company visiting this strange new country, though I'm probably never going to see them again. 

The immigration control was efficient; it seems that all of this transiting group was stamped into the country without questioning. It's interesting what legacies remain across much of the ex-USSR, though - I was given an immigration entry slip with all my details, in the same format and layout as the Russian and Belarusian versions. As with the others, the border control kept it when I got stamped out of the country later that day. 

So that this post doesn't go on forever, I'll put my observations of how strange the actual city was into a separate post here. 

We returned to the airport with maybe a bit more padding time than was needed, as the whole airport is quite small and the international terminal is even smaller - not dissimilar to a small UK regional airport. If I have one small regret, then it would be that I probably could have gone and visited the national museum for a couple of hours instead of spending an hour eating ice-cream and then waiting for ages in the airport. I did very much enjoy my time transiting through the Nur-Sultan / Astana, strange though the city was. 

Lining up for departure ahead of a Kazakhstan Air Force Tupolev Tu-154, one of Kazakhstan's governmental VIP fleet. 

The onward flight to London Heathrow was a Boeing 757 with the same seating as the previous night. There was a bonus treat on departure - we departed in front of a Kazakh governmental VIP Tupolev Tu-154, an iconic Soviet airliner. It was painted in the insignia of the Kazakhstan Air Force - it's unlikely I'll see this air force roundel again any time soon. 

Water, cognac, cheese crackers, and an excellent amenity kit even in Economy. 

Now that I was flying with Air Astana in the daytime and not spending the entire flight sleeping, I could sample the inflight service. I'd been very surprised when boarding my previous flight that amenity kits were provided even to Economy passengers, and even more so as the kit was actually decently stocked with eyeshades, a pen, hand lotion, flight socks, and even a blow-up pillow. I received another set for this second flight, though it's probably unlikely I'll use any of it any time soon. 

While waiting in the airport for my second flight, I noticed Kazakh cognac being sold. I'm not much of a cognac drinker, but what better excuse to try it than when the drinks and snacks trolley came around with this cognac available. It was only really something like 3PM Kazakh time and so probably a bit early for spirits, and the flight attendant did open a completely new bottle, but the Kazakh cognac was actually very nice. It's unlikely I'll ever come across it anywhere else, so I'm very happy I was able to partake. Such is the wonderful serendipity of travel through unusual places that I so enjoy. 

Air Astana lunchtime meal service

There was a decent meal service of some kind of beef with pasta, tomato, and mystery vegetables and with salad, bread, wine and soft cheese on the side. The hot meal was pretty standard, but it was nice to be given both chocolate and a snack bar. Most impressive of all, though, was the fact that we were given actual metal cutlery in Economy. I don't think I have ever seen that anywhere else. All in all, the in-flight experience with Air Astana was excellent - much better than I would have expected. The seat was a standard economy seat with a fairly decent selection of in-flight entertainment, but the service was much better than I've had with more well-known carriers. My only gripe was the mildly-annoying music in the background of the in-flight safety briefing video, which was played three times at the start of each flight - in Kazakh, then Russian, then English. Of course it's necessary, but it was getting annoying hearing it 6 times in one day over the two flights. Few airlines anywhere do this well, so it's not much of an exception, though most get around the problem by just playing it once with multilingual subtitles. 

Approach into Heathrow over Clapham Junction station in south London

Disembarkation was reasonably efficient, and my usual strategy of airport power-walking meant that I was able to get to the Tube station only 30 minutes after leaving the plane door. While that's still nowhere near my record of 4 minutes at London City Airport, I was still pretty impressed at this personal record just because this is Heathrow - with its endless walkways and usually-endless queuing at immigration control. 

All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised by my taster of Kazakhstan, and can very much recommend a transit visit in Nur-Sultan with Air Astana to get between London and East Asia. 

Summary itinerary: 

• Beijing PEK - Astana TSE: KC228, 0255 - 0650
• Astana TSE - London LHR: KC941, 1440-1650

Date: Tuesday 30th July 2019

Flight cost: £235.39, PEK-LHR one way.