Belavia is the national airline of Belarus. The airline was founded in 1996 and now has a fleet of 28 aircraft and flies to 50 destinations from its hub and base at Minsk National airport.
Departure experience
Belavia offers online check-in from 22 hours before scheduled departure time from most major airports in Europe and Asia. The online check-in process was very straight-forward with the possibility to select seats and enter passport details. At the end boarding passes could be printed but as I did not have access to a printer this part had to be sorted out at the airport.
Belavia has its own frequent flyer program called Belavia Leader but unfortunately the airline does not cooperate with any other major airline programs for point earnings. However for those who travel frequently with Belavia there are some good benefits with lounge access already at silver level. When reaching gold level (60 segments or 40,000 points) the member is automatically upgraded to business class, subject to availability.
I arrived at Riga airport 90 minute before departure. The departure hall was virtually empty as most morning flights had already departed and there are few departures in the late morning.
Belavia had two check-in desks open to Minsk, one for economy class and one for business class, with no queue for either of them. The route between Riga and Minsk is operated in cooperation with Air Baltic who also handles check-in and ground handling. The check-in agent was very friendly and printed boarding passes for both flights. I was only travelling with hand luggage. The screens above the check-in desks indicated all liquids had to be placed in the checked luggage, which made me confused as I did have a toiletries bag in my hand luggage, everything within the standard limits though. But it turned out not to be a problem.
Security control was very quick with almost no line, but the man manning the checkpoint was quite strict. I suppose this had more to do with too many people in Riga not knowing the rules rather than me looking suspicious.
I still had plenty of time before departure. Belavia economy class obviously does not provide lounge access, unless you have a silver or gold card with Belavia, but the two lounges at the airport are accessible with Priority Pass. There is a lounge in the non-Schengen area of the airport, which I though I would use, but it turned out there are two non-Schengen areas at the airport and that lounge is located in area C while my flight was to depart from area D, which is tiny area at the end of Concourse B. Fortunately I could use the Schengen lounge, the one most passengers use at the airport.
The lounge is now run by TAV and is called Primeclass Lounge. Overall it is nice but not very large with a good apron view and with decent food and drinks offerings. The staff are also friendly, always standing up at the reception desk whenever a guest arrives, which is a very nice gesture.
Just like the rest of the airport the lounge was virtually empty. Some breakfast dishes were still on offer at the self-service buffet. Having already had breakfast at the hotel I just had a croissant, a glass of orange juice and an espresso.
Read the full lounge review here!
The flight was departing from gate D2, in Concourse D, which is a small non-Schengen area at the end of the B-pier with just two gate areas on the upper and lower floors and virtually no facilities. I certainly made the right choice of not heading there early.
Boarding was announced 20 minutes before scheduled departure time at 9.35 am. No priority boarding was announced so I was the first passenger to board. As I passed the podium the gate agent started searching my passport for a visa but when she saw my second boarding pass she asked me if I had a connecting flight in Minsk and then let me pass.
The flight
Riga-Minsk
Belavia flight B2 842
Departure: 09.35
Arrival: 11.35
Economy Class
Embraer 175
Seat 08F
First impression
The flight was initially to be operated by a Canadair CRJ-200 but a few days before departure this was changed to an Embraer 175.
It was a short walk across the apron from the terminal building to the aircraft where I was greeted by a middle-aged flight attendant. The cabin gave a good first impression, the aircraft was obviously quite new with seats in grey leather. This was a far cry from the older Russian aircrafts previously used.
Economy class had a cabin load of around 70 percent while business class just had one passenger. Before departure caramels were offered from a basket followed by landing cards for Belarus. Most passengers seemed to have Minsk as final destination. After the standard safety demonstration the aircraft took off with a flight time of around 50 minutes.
Seat and cabin
The Embraer 175 had 76 seats divided into a business class cabin and an economy class cabin. In contrast to most European airlines on shorthaul routes the business class cabin had proper business class seats in a 1-2 configuration, in contrast to 2-2 in the rest of the aircraft. The seats were wider and had better legroom. There were 12 seats in business class with four rows.
Economy class started at row 5. There were 16 rows in a 2-2 configuration, 64 seats in total. The seats were fairly comfortable in grey leather with acceptable legroom for a short flight.
Food and drinks
Yes. this flight was in economy class and it only lasted about an hour, but many airlines in eastern Europe usually have a decent inflight service also on shorter flight, and that includes in economy class. So imagine my surprise when the younger female flight attendant arrived with the trolley with just bottles of water, either still or sparkling. No coffee or tea, no alcoholic beverages, no snacks or sandwiches, and no option to buy anything.
Well, I settled with a glass of water.
The service
Two female flight attendants were working in the cabin, a middle-aged purser who mainly worked in business class and a younger flight attendant who served us in economy class. They were both friendly and spoke surprisingly good English. And there were some smiles. Nothing to complain about in that sense.
Arrival experience
We landed a few minutes ahead of timetable in a grey and snowy Minsk.
Minsk National airport is really a masterpiece of architecture. Although it has been modernised in recent years its heritage from the USSR is still clearly visible. The terminal building is truly unique, in its own way.
There are not many aircraft stands at the terminal building with passenger bridges so we were assigned an apron stand and were taken to the terminal building by bus. We parked next to a Tupolev TU-154. These are no longer in use by Belavia, with the exception of one aircraft used by the government. Belavia was one of the last airlines in the world to fly the TU-154 on regular scheduled flights, with the last flight in 2015.
Final impression
A brand new aircraft with comfortable seats, friendly flight attendants, punctual departure and arrival and a transfer in Minsk that worked much better than expected. So far so good. But just a glass of water to drink, with nothing to eat and no option to buy or pre-order anything, that was a major drawback.
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