Azerbaijan Airlines

IST-GYD-IST on B767 very nice and spacious aircraft for such a short flight of 2hrs 40mins. Good selection of food 3 choices of veal / chicken / fish. Professional (I would not say friendly) and helpful staff. Nice IFE with good selection but a little outdated. On the return (morning) flight was fully booked. Breakfast had 3 selections of omelette / sausages / pancakes. Good experience but limited destinations of the airline. I would use them if they offer the destination that I would want. Soon they will start Beijing with A340-500.

DXB-GYD on AZAL 757. An old and well used aircraft but perfectly comfortable for 2.20 flight. Crew very friendly. Only downside was the on board food which wasn't good at all but I had fairly low expectations and ate in the airport before the flight so this wasn't a problem. I wouldn't actively seek out an AZAL flight over other airlines but equally if they were the best option I wouldn't have any issues flying with them again.

I fly frequently London-Baku-London Baku-Ankara-Baku and find AZAL very comfortable and a fair price in comparison with BMI. Cabin crew friendly business class service and overall experience is very good. Flights are mostly carried on times and with great professionalism from the pilots. I'll continue using AZAL in future.

We booked the flight via Air France as a codeshare. For some reason we were not in the Azal system. While the staff were kind it took a while to resolve this and there were some moments where we weren't sure we would be allowed on the flight. Azal needs to work on their codeshare process with Air France. Once our problem was resolved and our boarding passes issued everything was great. Kind cabin crew very clean plane and meals served onboard.

We flew between Paris and Baku return. The service was excellent. The food (hot lunch on the way to Baku and hot breakfast on the way back to Paris) very good to excellent much better than on North American airlines. It was our first time on this airline and I would fly them again.

Baku to Tehran and return. The first flight was a pretty old ATR-72 which looked quite scary from outside. Inside was not bad and relatively comfortable. The flight was pleasant and on time service on board was correct. The return leg was very unpleasant. The flight was supposed to leave at 2:20 am but due to the late arrival of the aircraft from Baku it was delayed of 1hr. Then when the moment to board came we didn't have any news and the Azerbaijan Airlines ground staff disappeared. Just after 1 more hour a staff member was found by the other passenger and was obliged to give a public statement just in Farsi announcing that due to heavy fog in Baku the plane was delayed without indicating the exact departure time. As I'm Italian I could just get this information from another fellow passenger who translated to me. At 7am the mob almost attacked an Azerbaijan Airlines staff member and obliged him to give some news : he made a phone call and after 10 minutes the we suddenly started to board. Finally we left at 8pm and the flight with an A319 went fairly well. Bad weather is a standard inconvenience and flying with fog is not safe but the behaviour of Azerbaijan Airlines was simply not acceptable. We were all left for hours without any information any drink and any apologize.

LHR-GYD. If travelling business ask to be checked into row 1 or 2 - rows 3 onwards are sometimes used for business class but have ordinary economy seats. Generous bar large dinner with typically Azerbaijan cuisine. Cheerful attentive flight attendants. The reverse journey (LHR-GYD) is overnight.

I have flown AZAL from both Paris and London to Baku but mainly from Gatwick as it was convenient for me. I flew Business class for approx 2 years and found inflight service was normally very good but preferred the old 757's to the new Airbus as the old aircraft had individual wide seats whereas the newer 757's were 3 economy seats divided into 2. My only criticisim would be at the main AZAL office in Baku where I had to chase up my frequent flyer Silver Card - which I still do not have. I also lost my wallet with the original blue card and when reporting it for a replacement AZAL "fined" me 25% on my air miles. Security at Baku was always thorough but fair. I also used BA and BMI to Baku but would recommend AZAL as they are normally cheaper and the Baku flight had plenty of seats from Gatwick to Baku.

Tupolev 134 used from Baku to Nkhchivan interior was plastic - the curtains hung with wires in front of the windows. The air conditioning poured steam out of the ventilation. The backrests of my seat was damaged. The table had to be held in place because the fastening to the seat in front of me was damaged. The landing was careful and there was free water served during the long ground stay before we got in the air.

LHR to Tehran via Baku. Planes were clean and appeared newish and food mostly good although sandwiches dry and dull. Service was fair at best but would fly Azerbaijan again as it was the cheapest.