Lao Airlines - A Taster Course

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Today we fly back to Vientiane from Phonsavan. We have a flight out of Laos on Wednesday and want to spend a day in Vientiane...

Once again several options present themselves - do we subject ourselves to 15 hours of bumpy public bus, or do we decide to be adventurous and fly ? Well, we'd already made the decision a week before in Luang Phabang, when I managed to get my paws on the last 2 remaining tickets on the Lao Airlines flight from Xieng Khouang to Vientiane (three flights a week). I booked the ticket having carefully looked at the timetable, which informed me that the aircraft flying this route was a new French-Italian built ATR. Indeed Lao Airlines has acquired an unfortunate reputation for poor safety, somewhat unfairly since nothing has happened in the last 10 years. Foreign embassies in Laos advise their workers and nationals to avoid the airline. However the road was not necessarily a safer option, so having weighed the pros against the cons, we grabbed the tickets.

Having whiled away the morning having breakfast, packing our bags and discussing how happy we were to finally be escaping the grottiness of Phonsavan, we made our way through the dusty streets on the back of a motorcycle-rickshaw to "Xieng Khouang Airport" (the photos - soon to come - should be enough to explain the quotation marks. How shall I put it...if by "airport" the authorities mean "strip of bumpy tarmac with a small hut and chickens running all the over the place", then yes, Xieng Khouang does have an airport. Of sorts. Our baggage was weighed using an old sliding scale (a classic - sadly Lao officials are somewhat iffy about having their photo taken so you'll have to believe me), an a malfunctioning megaphone acted as the tannoy system. Not that a tannoy was necessary - the "departure lounge" (another good'un) was about 10 metres by 5. The real surprise came when I read the "departures board" (sorry, the quotation marks really are necessary, I know it's mean). Apparently Lao Airlines used a bit of poetic licence in their timetable. Today we would have the honour of flying a Chinese Harbin Y12, a whopping 17-seater rustbucket. Whoops. I had promised myself that if we flew Lao Airlines we would avoid the Y12...bemusement was soon replaced by panic and then bemusement again. As my father-in-law (whom I shall not name, hope you don't mind Doug) told me "the oldest planes are the safest". Mantra in mind, we spent a couple of hours waiting for the arrival of our plane from Vientiane.

An airport worker proceeded to announce that the flight had left Vientiane 45 minutes late. Good start, good start. Not that we should have bothered. He screamed into his microphone so loudly and knew so little of acoustic feedback that he may as well have made the announcement in Quechua. I only knew what he'd said because I'd checked with air-traffic control (first door on the left next to the loo).

The plane came into view. Riiiiiight....trying to stay calm I boarded the plane (5 falangs, 12 locals). It was like a sardine can. The cabin was marginally larger than that of a mini. Without the aircon. Well to cut a long story short - I nearly wet myself on (the gobsmackingly short) takeoff (OK, OK), felt quite sick during the flight (the poor man behind me actually was - copiously...thank goodness for Lao Airlines sickness bags...yes ! they are actually lined with plastic). But the view was amazing. Paddy fields, the Mekong, lakes and hills. The pilot did a handbrake turn towards the runway and I could actually see it through the pilots window and my stomach migrated back to its usual position once we had stopped.

It was fine actually. Quite scary, quite exciting. Let's hope the flight from Vientiane to Angkor on Wednesday actually is an ATR. I've had enough Y12 flight time for the next century.

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Photos

Passports please !
The security guards just outside the terminal at Phonsavan International Airport.

Airport Café
Some of the tasty snacks for sale at the airport "terminal". These are giant hornet grubs served in a crisp honeycomb. Yum ! We saw a few of our fellow passengers carrying bags of these on our flight.

A busy flight schedule...
Here's where I noticed the dreaded letters "Y12".

Inbound from Vientiane
Minutes earlier torrential rain had made visibility marginally better than pea soup. Much to our relief, it cleared up a bit moments before the plane came in to land.

How many people can you squeeze onto a Y12 ?
Answer: nineteen (including the two pilots and the imaginary air hostess). Alex is last in line - notice the raised right foot. She can't wait to get to Vientiane and out of smelly, dirty, boring, weirdo Phonsavan. As for me, I'm trying to delay boarding for as long as possible !

Different perspectives
In the air between Xieng Khouang and Vientiane. Alex admires the gleaming rice paddies reflecting the evening sun. William keeps his eyes firmly on the wing strut to check the rivets aren't falling out. You'll be glad to hear none did.

Seconds from touchdown
Just 3 seconds earlier we were way off course for the runway ! Note that this photo is taken from my seat in the BACK row of the plane - that's how small it was !

Comments

[Qiang]

Phew, seems you really had lots of fuuuuuun, even myself never saw a Y12