My BIZARRE Flight on Turkmenistan Airlines: World's Strangest Airline

At check in they fought like a married couple 😂

The way this video escalated from "Oh I might not be able to enter the country" to "Turkmenistan is basically North Korea" to "Passengers and crew drinking in the aisle during takeoff", you're crazy. What a trip, super ballsy.

I flew with Turkmenistan from Birmingham to India over 20 years ago, never again!! Almost go arrested at Ashgabat airport for taking a photo of my father drinking out of a china cup on the layover...they proceeded to ask me to take my film out of my digital camera. Madness.

I have flown with Turkmenistan airways from Gatwick to Turkmenistan then on to Bangkok. It was a freaking nightmare. The staff was bonkers. The plane ride was crazy. They drove it like they stole it when taking off and an economy class. It was like an aeroplane movie. I was expecting chickens and goats to walk down the aisle

Being German speaking, the conversation between the two ground agents at Frankfurt is absolutely hilarious 😂

My dad told me that in the late 1960s, he was the last passenger to board a domestic US flight on a 727, as they were holding it for him as his inbound flight was delayed. The door closed and the aircraft pushed back when he was only halfway down the aisle to his seat in the rear, which he discovered was occupied--as were all others on the aircraft. By this time, the plane was taxiing away from the terminal. A somewhat bewildered flight attendant said to follow her, and she put him in her jump seat and stood with her back against a wall in the rear galley. She just hung on to whatever she could during takeoff and landing.

About 15 years ago I flew from Frankfurt am Main (Germany) to Turkmenistan (Ashgabat) on a Lufthansa Airbus A340-600. There were 6 people on board, including myself.

I love how when then found out you were business class they suddenly just said all is ok 😂

It always amazes me how Noel manages to film on airlines with the most strict no camera rules. Yes he was caught, but the footage wasn’t deleted. Very impressive to say the least.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ashgabat

Turkmenbashi didn't rename a day of the week after his mother, but yes, he did rename the month of April/Aprel after his mother Gurbansoltan. Other months were changed like Oguz for June/Iýun (Oguz is a legendary khan of Turkic people), Baýdak (Turkmen for flag) for February/Fewral, and Sanjar for November/Noýabr (Sanjar was the last ruler of the Seljuks). For the days of the week, Friday (or Anna in Turkmen) was simply changed from Anna to Annagün and means "Mother Day", but Friday was basically already called that before the change. He also closed all hospitals outside Ashgabat to force people to go there and made people read his book the Ruhnama, basically his book of opinions that all Turkmen had to agree with. If you want to drive, you had to pass a test about the Ruhnama. He even had a statue of himself that rotated so that it would ALWAYS face the Sun, to symbolize that his era was the golden age! Yeah, he was insane. Gurbanguly didn't actually rename anything after himself (also the city named after Niyazov's mother has since been changed to Andalyp in 2022 in honor of a poet) as he chose to give up that right when he became president to be different from Niyazov, but that of course didn't stop him from building golden statues of himself just like Niyazov as you mentioned as well as going after silly world records! The one with Gurbanguly on horseback at 11:30 was built because he's obsessed with the Turkmen national animal, the Akhal-Teke, which is on Turkmenistan's emblem. The one on the emblem is specifically Niyazov's pet horse Yanardag! Of course, a monument to Yanardag was built in Ashgabat in 2014. After Gurbanguly stepped down in 2022, his son Serdar became president in a snap election. He granted his father the title "National Leader of the Turkmen People".

Wouldn't be suprised to See Noel knock on the gates of North Korea soon, asking where he can connect to Hawaii 😂

You gotta fly Air Koryo now, brother.

standing up drinking whisky during takeoff is absolutely gangster

That point of the internet when you realise you're watching a random guy take a flight to Turkmenistan

As a former flight attendant with Lufthansa I can very well remember my layovers in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Well, it definitely wasn't the most popular layover-destination 😂 But it was o.k. Our company asked us not to go out alone, if we wanted to do so. When Lufthansa started to fly to ASB in the early 1990's, the atmosphere in that city was a kind of friendly, relaxed post-Soviet Union than in the early 2010's when political tensions in that country grew and the atmosphere was not that pleasant anymore. For us, the crew, it was a perfect hotel-layover to do the annual income tax declaration 😅

Haha, "the sunset was highly classified"... made my day :-)

standing and drinking during takeoff is a level of dedication i have never seen before lol

I’m from OMA and it’s always a treat to hear us mentioned. Surprised it happened to be in a video about Turkmenistan!

I worked 18 months in Turkmenistan. The flights were the least strange aspect of that time.