YEMENIA Yemen Airways review : 31 May 2008 : by Sahar Choudhury

Customer Rating : 2/5

The return tickets London to Bangladesh were cheap so I chose to try them out. Both the economy and First class seats are shabby. London-Yemen flight was less than half full on an Airbus 310. In flight entertainment was abysmal with the same film shown on both outward and inward flights. There is no personal in-flight entertainment system, everyone shares the same overhead screen. Sana'a airport transit lounge lets the airline down. There were over 200 people in the lounge with only 3 filthy cubicles for men and none of them had a working flush or toilet paper, and all of them were overflowing with excrement (I have photos). There was no soap either. The 5 hour transit wait was unpleasant. Sanaa to Bangladesh flight was full. The aircraft was infested with flies and it was hard to eat. Food isn't great but its ok for the price. There are no snacks even if you ask. No extra milk for tea either except the powder sachet that you get once with your main meal. Reconfirming the flights in Bangladesh was erratic. Local agent asked I present my passport and ticket in person and present a copy of my visa (I was told by UK travel agents I only needed to phone in order to reconfirm)! In the end I argued with him and sent him a copy of my ticket and passport by fax. Return journey from Bangladesh to Sana'a was the same on Flight IY0873, and the first class seat I was in (seat 2E) was very shabby and only slightly larger than economy but did have good legroom. The footrests were broken and there were flies buzzing around. Trasit at Sanaa to London was done in the bus and boarding cards handed out while the bus was moving to the transit lounge where more people got on. The official took all our passports and disappeared for a while. He then left all our passports with a fellow passenger and jumped off the bus. We had to frantically grab our passports because of the risk of theft. Sanaa to London flight had same food and flies, and the stewardess explained that the flies were around because of the dates in Yemen. We requested she spray insecticide and she said she would try but it never happened. 20 minutes before landing at Heathrow she sprayed insecticide but that was because of UK rules. Verdict - Flight schedule was super, crew dont go the extra mile. I will travel with them again if the fare is cheap and I am the only traveller, otherwise I will give them a miss. Not recommended for families because of the really poor transit lounge and toilets.

Yemenia review by Z Khan

17 May 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I bought the ticket as it was the cheapest available, the service was horrible. The planes are ok and sometime you will have plenty of space to rest. There is very little in flight entertainment system. The headset does not work for most of the seats. Sana'a international airport is the worst airport I have seen in my life. There is a big dirty waiting room for the transit passenger and no facility to buy food or even shop. Strangely enough, you have to request the guards to let you in the duty free region and most of them don’t understand English. The airport staff are very rough. The connecting flights are not regular. So if you miss one, you are stuck at Sana'a for 2/3 days. Onboard food choice is very limited and sometimes I was offered no choice. Though there were options in the menu the cabin crews were giving whatever they want to the passengers. You can save some money with this but at the end of the day may have to regret like me.

Yemenia review by Nizar Bantan

8 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Jeddah-Sanaa-Paris return. On the way back I had big problem when I arrived to Sanaa, my flight from Sanaa to Jeddah was supposed to depart at 1 am - operations cancelled this flight without being advised and postponed it to 1 pm next day. This flight was then delayed on ground as well while all the passengers onboard, waiting for a VIP. The whole journey took me more than 40 hours.

Yemenia review by Geir Tonstol

11 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Sana'a to Cairo, First Class. Only five passengers in the spacious F-cabin onboard this A330. Though flight lasted less than three hours, the inflight service was impressive. Fruit cocktails served prior to takeoff, Yemeni tea and dates served before a three course meal with wide selection of (non-alcoholic) drinks. Comfortable seats reclined to fully flat position. Large individual TV screens for IFE. Porcelain miniatures of national landmarks offered as gifts just before landing. Excellent on-time performance!

Yemenia review by Meghan Zimmerman

29 January 2007

Cairo to Sanaa and back. The service was good. Round trip flight had good service and despite a few kids running in the aisles it was a peaceful flight. Though I was confident of Yemeni before, I am a little shaken up of a Yemenia flight report from my husband, and worry about his flight home.

Yemenia review by Olli Toivonen

19 October 2006

London to Aden (direct flight). Everything was OK, except flight went down to Sanaa, not continuing to Aden. There was no information during flight concerning this. 35 passengers was left to Sanaa airport. Next plane to Aden was departing after 18 hours. Luckily, Yemenia paid us taxi, so we went last 350km with Peugeot 505 with driver + four people and luggages. I fly few times From ADE to SAA and back during my stay. Every flight had some problems. Return flight from Aden to Sanaa had to be confirmed twice before departure. From Sanaa to Frankfurt flight was OK. It seems that domestic flights are made with left hand, but international flights are taken care better. Next time I went to Aden via Dubai, DXB-ADE-DXB was with Yemenia with no big problem, only some delays. On international flights cabin crew was also better than domestic flights.

Yemenia review by Gill Holmes

12 April 2006

I flew 2 international flights London - Sana'a and 2 internal flights to Socotra and I have to say that on every flight the crew were the friendliest I have encountered in the last 5 years. Suggesting where we sit for the best views, making extra cups of tea etc. While the internal flights were completely full and the Yemenis carry enough hand luggage to fill the pane twice over, the international flights were so empty everyone had a whole row of seats to themselves which sure makes a change.

Yemenia review by Jane Geels

26 January 2006

I had a fully reconfirmed ticket from Sana'a to Socotra and back. In Sana'a I was told the flight is full (!!) and could I come back every day to see if there are any changes. I finally got a seat on the plane. In Hadibu (on the island of Socotra) I had my ticket reconfirmed by an agent a week prior to departure, and he was told that my name had been cancelled. As I had to fly back to Europe the same day I was furious. After a lot of angry words there was suddenly a seat available for me. The flight from Sana'a to Socotra costs 300 euros - one can almost fly from Amsterdam to New York for this fare! On the plane we were told that they had run out of coffee, and we received nothing to eat or drink from 7am in the morning until 11am, when we reached Sana'a airport! Never in my life have I experienced such bad service and incompetence.

Yemenia review by Sverre Daehlen

29 November 2005

I fly Yemenia every six months on the route Riyadh-Sana'a (via Aden) and back to Riyadh. They have reasonably new, clean aircraft with good legroom and the food is no better or worse than what you are served on short distance economy class journeys on other airlines. Punctuality has been good except once, and Yemenis are generally welcoming people which also applies to my experience with Yemenia booking-office staff in Sana'a. However, I agree that most airlines in this region offer lower standards of aircraft and service on typical expat flights to Asia, and flights with large numbers of deportees from Saudi Arabia can be a mixed experience. Generally I am satisfied with Yemenia and will use them on future flights to Sana'a.

Yemenia review by L Singh

9 January 2004

London - Sana'a to Jakarta and found the service bad. I chose for Yemenia because it was the cheapest rate. I never have been in a airline with such rude FA's especially the male attendants! IFE was below average, seat was cramed, not comfortable, inflight catering was OK, but the cabin interior was so dirty. I feel sorry for the pax who sit near the restrooms, it smells so bad!

Yemenia review by Sam Park

17 November 2003

I travelled on Yemenia several times. The main problem is the lack of professionalism and punctuality .

Yemenia review by David Howe

24 October 2003

Last summer, we flew Sana'a - London return. I just wish to show my gratitude and admiration to the crew for catering to my two children's whims & fancies. They were able to tame them!

Yemenia review by B Herdens

07 May 2003

My trip was from Paris to Sana'a as a tourist and I wish to applaud the Yemenia flight attendants' customer service throughout the long flight. It was a cherishable trip.

Yemenia review by Baljeet Panaich

07 November 2002

I travelled Yemenia, Sanaa to Mumbai. The attitude of male flight attendants on the flight was despicable. I have worked as a flight attendants for a long time also and I do understand the pressure of a full load flight on cabin crew, but they are trained for this, aren't they? There is no excuse for them to be rude to the passengers and obstruct the way to the toilets etc, just because a meal service is going on. I was very surprised to see a male flight attendant frowning at a passenger just because he wanted to lodge a complaint. It is sad that the workers in the airline judge the passengers by their language and lineage and then decide their own attitude towards them. This is for others, I wasn't spared either. I was four months pregnant at the time of the flight and also suffering from irritable colon syndrome, therefore needed to use the toilet frequently. I dared the flight attendant to go to the toilet during the meal service. On my way back to the seat, I had to wait for good fifteen minutes near his cart. He did not even look in my direction either to explain or to apologize even after after my asking him to please give me a way as I desperately needed to sit.

Yemenia review by M Mantle

04 April 2002

I've been searching for a means to vent and express my frustration with Yemenia. The airline was run and operated by folks who barely know anything about customer service. We flew from United States to Asmara, Eritrea. The route we took was Delta airline from Atlanta to Frankfurt and changed airline to Yemenia and flew to Asmara thru Sanaa.  Before we departed we asked them if the flight was non-smoking they assured us that was the case, when we boarded we saw a man puffing a cigarette and reminded him that this was non-smoking flight. He simply laughed and we notified the attendant and told us to find an empty seat in an air craft filled with passengers and left us alone. After we pleaded the smoker he felt sorry and went to the rest room and continued smoking.  We landed in Sanaa around 11pm and we were greeted with folks who could barely speak English. The only means of communication was yelling and sign language. For the first time, I felt like a prisoner and all passengers were under a watchful eye of the police. After they gave us our boarding pass - which was another fiasco, since they can't read English, the passengers had to make sense of their hand writing and sort out the names and tell them who is who. Later we boarded a bus and were sent to another area which resembles a warehouse. According to the schedule the wait was supposed to be one hour. We waited for three hours  - the filthy area with no air conditioning. We asked airline agents for the revised schedule, they kept ignoring us and telling us to wait. They were rude and impolite. Three hours later, we took off.  After this horrible experience and lousy service, I decided to dump their return ticket and use Lufthansa on my way back to United States. It was like NIGHT and DAY.