A new service to connect Central Asia to Africa with direct flights for the first time will help achieve a strategic goal of the Egyptian government to develop Cairo International airport into a hub. Amirah Ibrahim joined the opening flight to Almaty One roof I departed from Cairo International's state-of-the-art new terminal TB3. Joining an opening trip of the new route to Almaty, Kazakhastan, operated by the national carrier, the media group of air travel and tourism writers met together with the official delegation formed from airline and civil aviation authorities, three hours before the flight departure time. That was due to a scheduled tour through the carrier's new lounges which have just been opened at TB3. As a Star Alliance member since July 2008, EgyptAir's new lounges appeared as similar to Lufthansa lounges in Frankfurt: airport the same furniture, walls, lighting system and IT equipment. Early this year, Cairo International moved all scheduled flights operated by Star Alliance member airlines to the new terminal TB3. A main condition by Star Alliance is that each member airline should allocate one terminal in its base airport for the alliance members to operate their flights together; a policy announced as to "Move under one Roof". However, I should warn old passengers and mums with kids to ask for an airport-vehicle ride as they have to walk for 15 minutes after immigration counters to reach the gates. Overnight flight The official delegation was seated in the business class while the media group was seated in economy. Thus I will only provide my economy experience. The new route is twice weekly on Fridays and Tuesdays; both are overnight flights. The carrier operates the route to Almaty with its newest airplane B737-800, the most highly praised plane over the past three years. I have not flown this class before, so I felt excited to explore it. The flight duration is six hours. The flight attendant, a blonde with a big smile on her face, passed out ear phones and newspapers. As usual, only a limited selection is available aboard EgyptAir flights. The carrier justifies this as to avoid extra weight. The dinner meal was soon served with two choices: beef or chicken. I didn't mind, as long as it smells good, I told the attendant. I always have a problem with food smell while flying. The meal was fine, only the carrier should consider increasing the portions. Not extraordinary options for entertainment are provided for economy passengers. Internal TV channels included two for Arabic movies and two for western movies in addition to five radio channels. An excellent idea to promote Egyptian culture would be to offer the Egyptian movies with subtitles. I was glad to have my next seat not occupied to have privacy. My neighbour had been reading an article about Luxor at the in- flight magazine. We had a normal conversation about Luxor monuments then I asked him: "Are you Japanese?" He shook his head and looked slightly peaked: "I am Kazakh." I smiled as I was embarrassed to remember we were going to a Central Asia country. I easily fell asleep soon after dinner, using the next seat to make a small bed with my feet to the window. Half an hour before landing my Kazakh neighbour woke me up for breakfast. I enjoyed watching the clouds for 10 minutes as the plane sailed over them. But soon, the sky turned grey while strong winds changed the nice white clouds to grey. I felt grateful to my colleagues who warned me just before leaving home to get a heavy coat. The temperature is 1 degree at night and 15 in the daytime. On arrival, it seemed that the official delegation forgot about the accompanied media group, as they enjoyed a quick and easy entrance while we were locked away for 45 minutes to finish immigration procedures. Almaty airport appeared small and modest but clean. On picking up our luggage, we were all stunned to find it was missing. EgyptAir agents disappeared and more than 20 minutes passed before a Kazakh airport employee informed us the good news, our luggage finally was found. As a result the media group missed the red-carpet opening celebration and the press conference that followed -- a bad start. On the way out, we were pleased to see beautiful Kazakh girls dressed in colourful Kazakh traditional dress, providing us a warm welcome, offering a variety of apples, which were first domesticated in Kazakhstan. At last we are in Almaty, or Alma-Ata, which means apple tree in Kazakh. Giant steppe For most people, the easiest way to get to Kazakhstan is by air. Several airlines have regular flights into Almaty, including the low-cost carrier airBaltic from Riga, Lufthansa, CSA, Etihad Airways, KLM, bmi, Turkish Airlines, and now EgyptAir. The most important carrier is now Air Astana, the national carrier of the country and operator of most routes to Almaty. This season EgyptAir will offer two more regular flights weekly to Cairo on Fridays and Mondays in addition to the several charter flights already operating to ferry tourists from Kazakhstan to Sharm El-Sheikh. "The Egyptian embassy in Astana has issued 45,000 visas over the past year," explained Emad Sallam, head of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority. "We have indications that the new route to Almaty is a promising one, with increasing demands by Kazakh travel agents to operate charter flights to Red Sea resorts in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada. Kazakhs are fond of travelling and we are keen to attract more traffic to Egypt and Africa through Cairo International airport," Sallam added. Kazakhstan is the world's ninth biggest country by size. "It is by far the largest of the Central Asia's states of the former USSR. It has borders with Russia, China, and the Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan," explained Toleukhan Raiskhanov, an official at the Kazakhstan Embassy in Cairo. "Almaty acts as a cornerstone for air transport traffic to and from the neighbouring small states," Raiskhanov explained. The distance between Almaty and Kyrgyzstan borders is only 50 km, and it is only 200 km to Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital. According to the EgyptAir Deputy chairman, Ayman Nasr, despite losing its status as the capital to Astana, Almaty remains the major commercial centre of Kazakhstan. "The city has an excellent air transport network connecting it with central Asian states. Only two Arab carriers operate at present to Alamty, but we are the only African carrier to connect Kazakhstan and Central Africa with the African continent through direct flights." In October, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana visited Kazakhstan to boost travel to Egypt. "We need more support by the Tourism Ministry and travel operators to market Egyptian tourist destinations to Kazakh people who mainly travel to Sharm El-Sheikh for its beaches," explained regional manager in Almaty Mohamed El-Kurdi. "More tourism promotional campaigns are required to make Egypt familiar to Kazakh travel agents," El-Kurdi added. A delegation of travel agents from Egypt and tourism officials went to Almaty to promote travel on the new route. However, Kazakh travel agents complain that the Egyptian Embassy in Astana is not that helpful, as it takes 14 days to issue a visa. "We need the Egyptian government to reconsider resuming the previous rules where Kazakh tourists were allowed to obtain visas upon arrival at Egyptian airports. Or the visa procedures should be completed in two days not 14 days," complained a Kazakh travel operator in a press conference held in Almaty just before the delegation returned to Cairo. The Apple taste Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan, and is still its largest city. Being a financial and cultural centre of Central Asia, Almaty boasts large tourist and expatriate communities. A small mountain range borders the city to the east, and in the far south on a clear day you can see the beautifully rugged, snow-capped mountains, right at the city's doorstep. "The mountains outside of town are critical to direction. When someone tells you to head up they are telling you to head towards the mountains. When someone tells you to head down they are telling you to head away from the mountains," explained Hameeda, our Kazakh tour guide. Two main tours were organised over the first two days. A city tour to explore Almaty city included a visit to the Abai Opera and Ballet Theatre. We visited the Palace of the Republic, but were not allowed to go inside. However, the scenery and architecture is breathtaking. "If the guards are out front, it means the president is there," she explained. Opposite to the Presidential Palace is the blue-roofed National Museum, which has displays on Kazakh history from prehistoric times through the Mongol periods to the present. The 28 Panfilov Heroes Memorial Park honours the men from Kazakhstan who died on the battlefields of World War II against the Nazis. There is an eternal flame by the war memorial where schoolchildren put flowers on the last day of school, and newlyweds also come to have their photos taken there. In the park is an Orthodox church built in 1870 without a single nail, painted in dollhouse colours with a metallic steeple. We also went for a walk on Arbat Street where Almaty's artists gather row on a tree-lined pedestrian street. On the same street you can visit the big mall Silk Way with a selection of upscale shops. Almaty is among top 50 most expensive cities worldwide, more expensive than Toronto, Los Angeles or Hamburg. Thus we missed the chance to go shopping. Kazakh people are very kind and welcoming and we were delighted by their hospitality. Hameeda was proud to tell us she belonged to the ethnic minority Tatars. "We are not the ones who had invaded and conquered Islamic countries like Persia, Iraq and Syria, and destroyed their civilisations eight centuries ago. The Mongols were those who did it all, but we have been mistakenly blamed for it," she explained. Hameeda is a Muslim with Turkish roots, married to an ex-military officer, Rafael, who was proud to tell us that he had retired just before the USSR was dissolved. "I am an ex-officer at the Soviet army," he stated. A second tour took us to ride the cable car up to Koktobe to see the wonderful views of the mountains, vineyards, and Almaty. Facts Capital: Astana 2nd largest city and capital since December 1998. Almaty: the old capital and the largest city with a population of 1,348,500 Currency: Tenge (KZT) $1 = 150T Area: 2,717,300 sq km Population: 16,402,861 Language: Kazakh 64.4 per cent, Russian (used in everyday business) 95 per cent Religions: Muslim 60 per cent, Russian Orthodox 31 per cent, Protestant 2 per cent, other 7 per cent Time Zone: GMT+6
