CNNGo.com

No joke: Aeroflot plans budget airline
The most 'checked-in' place on Facebook is ...
How to drink raki: A crash course in Turkey’s signature drink

Posted: 13 Aug 2013 06:50 AM PDT

Its dubious reputation largely behind it, carrier seeks to create Russian version of easyJet

Once the butt of jokes about vodka-fueled pilots and inedible inflight meals, the Russian state carrier, Aeroflot, is planning to launch a budget airline along the lines of easyJet or Ryanair.

Spotting demand in a country in which many people still cross vast distances -- slowly -- by train, the airline is hoping to launch budget fares from Moscow to St Petersburg and cities in southern Russia as early as 2014, eTurboNews reported.

Aeroflot already has low-cost competition in Russian airspace. In March, easyJet itself launched flights between Moscow and London, and next month the Hungarian airline Wizz Air will begin flying between Budapest and the Russian capital.

Another Russian carrier, UTair, is also planning to set up a budget airline.

Soviet image

Aeroflot has gone a long way in overturning its Soviet-era image as a carrier no sane person would fly on, joining the Sky Team alliance -- whose other members include Delta and Air France -- and winning awards for its service.

However, a low-cost version of Aeroflot faces other barriers to its success than reputation.

Budget carriers have been tried, and have failed, in Russia before. In 2006, the late, exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky founded SkyExpress -- only for flights to splutter to a halt five years later as the airline ran out of revenue.

The American-backed carrier Avianova launched in 2009 with a strategy, as described by its then CEO, to "[fly] those Russians who haven't even seen the inside of an airplane in the past 20 years."

Despite advertising domestic tickets for as low as 250 rubles (less than $10), it accrued debts of $38 million and ceased trading after only two years.

Budget ingredients

Russia lacks several important ingredients budget airlines have traditionally relied upon.

First, cheap airports. Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, for example, is the 12th most expensive in the world -- four times as expensive as Hong Kong International Airport, according to the Russia Beyond the Headlines website.

Second, neither do airplanes come cheap in Russia. Taxes and duties on the fuel-efficient budget favorite the Airbus A320 can account for more than 40% of its cost.

Finally -- a ruling that would no doubt give Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary apoplexy -- Russian airlines are legally required to provide passengers with certain services such as inflight meals.

To get around these barriers, Aeroflot's so far unnamed low-cost operation would rely upon strategies including selling non-refundable tickets online only, introducing baggage fees and hiring less expensive foreign pilots.

However, Russian law currently restricts these practices, too.

"As long as the law does not change, absolutely nothing is going to fly. We are not going to take the risk," Aeroflot chief executive Vitaly Saveliev told Russian TV.

Unfair reputation

Cherished subject of airline satirists that it was, Aeroflot may never have fully deserved the dubious image it long trailed behind it.

"Once upon a time, measured in raw crash totals, Aeroflot had a comparatively poor record," Askthepilot.com says.

However, those figures are not entirely surprising given that, for much of its 90-year history, the airline was the largest in the world and flew to remote, risky destinations such as the Antarctic.

In any case, Aeroflot apparently hasn't let its history temper its ambition. If it can overcome the legal obstacles to its domestic operation, it hopes to launch budget flights to destinations beyond Russia, including Kiev, Istanbul and Barcelona, the South China Morning Post reported.

Tags:

aviation

Russia

The most 'checked-in' place on Facebook is ...

Posted: 13 Aug 2013 02:11 AM PDT

We don't know why they do it, but here's where they do it

The most-checked in places on the planet, surprise surprise, mostly happen to be airports.

People love checking-in them and broadcasting it, showing off to friends on Facebook. At least least that's what the Facebook Graph API on people's check-ins shows, according to data picked up and organized by SocialBakers.

U.S. airports dominate the top, then Asian airports (Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taiwan, among others) in the middle.

The only non-airports in top list are Disneyland and Times Square.

For the full list of 50 top check-ins, see the Skift article.

Story from Rafat Ali at Skift.

Rules of the table

Traditional Turkish musicians A fasil ekibi (traditional Turkish band) provides additional spirit at a raki gathering.Different occasions call for different kinds of raki company.

If you're celebrating, six to eight people might surround the raki table. For a really big event, such as a wedding or a birth, 25 people might gather round.

In this case, the venue might be somewhere such as Zarifi (13 Çukurlu Çeşme Sokak; +90 212 293 5480), an Istanbul tavern where the night starts with classical Turkish music and moves on to a belly dancing show.

Many such watering holes feature a fasıl ekibi, a band of male musicians who play traditional tunes on instruments such as the ney (a reed flute), a saz or a kanun (both string instruments).

Traditional but not staid: a raki-fueled night often ends with people dancing on tables and chairs.

But if a raki table is gathered to help heal a broken heart, it's a much more intimate scene: two to four close friends.

The venue might still be a tavern, but in this case somewhere such as Asmalı Cavit (16 Asmalimescit Caddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul; +90 212 292 4950) or Yakup (35 Asmalı Mescit Caddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul; +90 212 249 2925), where music plays only lightly in the background and conversation is the focus.

Raki therapy

Raki drinkers Friends gather around a çilingir sofrası -- the so-called "locksmith's table" is renowned for unlocking the secrets of any heart.On such nights, the raki gathering becomes a kind of group therapy session in which a friend shares his or her troubles, you offer your own wisdom in return and everyone takes an occasional break from the intensity for a wider discussion on the meaning of life.

Such discussions explain why the raki table is often called çilingir sofrası, which literally translates as locksmith's table. Rakı, in other words, has a mysterious power to open up even the most reserved person.

Whether celebration or commiseration spurred the raki gathering, the conversation follows a typical trajectory.

It begins with the gentle subjects of work and daily life. A chilled highball glass or two of raki later, it moves on to matters of the heart.

An unspecified number of glasses after -- but some time before the table-top dancing -- talk almost inevitably turns to politics.

Raki, in fact, has become the stuff of politics itself. In line with recent restrictive laws on alcohol sales, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the socially conservative Justice and Development Party, announced that Turkey's national drink isn't raki but ayran -- a yogurt-based refreshment.

In the blood

Raki glass Raki is always served with water, and sometimes with ice.As much as Turks love their ayran (it goes well with kebabs), the drink isn't known for sparking soulful discussions or joyful celebrations -- let alone dancing on tables.

Nor does it tend to fuel political debate, which may well be to Erdoğan's advantage.

Ayran isn't in the Turkish bloodstream the way raki is.

Raki is the common denominator of Turkish culture, enjoyed by Turks almost no matter what gender, age or social class (and notwithstanding that most Turks are at least nominally Muslim).

A raki table typically gathers around 7 p.m. and disperses sometimes long after midnight, with diners eating all the while.

The food serves in part to dampen the effect of the strong spirit -- raki is about 45% alcohol.

Meze, tapas-like Turkish appetizers, are raki's perfect culinary companions -- you can graze on them all night.

And so you should: getting drunk at the rakı table, wobbling out of the tavern at the end of the night, is frowned upon.

Feta attraction

Feta and melons are the first meze to appear: at a raki gathering, you won't even have to order them.Although main dishes of meat and fish may follow, the first mezes to appear at the table are feta cheese (beyaz beynir) and melons.

After these courses appear, a waiter will ask if you want to open a bottle.

A group of first-timers should ask for a 35-centiliter bottle -- one-third of a liter -- and tell the waiter you each want a tek (4cl), about one shot. Seasoned rakı drinkers often have a double (8cl).

After pouring the raki in the kadeh (highball glass), the waiter will ask if you want water and ice.

Novices should answer yes to both.

Raki is always consumed with chilled water -- although some raki drinkers say ice diminishes with the flavor of the drink.

Have a bite of cheese and melon, then a sip of raki with a toast to everyone's health -- "Afiyet olsun!"

Clink bottoms

When toasting, be sure to do so with the bottom of the glasses clinking. Touching the top of someone's glass means you think you're better than them.

One of the loveliest raki traditions is to knock your glass lightly on the table after toasting in remembrance of someone you wish were present.

And now you sip. That mesmerizing aniseed smell might seem strange at first, but it soon becomes pleasurable.

Even if you don't want to drink raki, order a glass and pretend. Some people might take offense if you drink anything else at a raki gathering.

Meze Meze platters arrive through the evening, helping to soak up the powerful raki (45% alcohol).Soon a huge tray of cold mezes, a mix of fish and vegetable dishes, will arrive. Must-tries include fava (mashed broad beans with dill), pilaki (beans in olive oil) and haydari (yogurt with garlic, mint, and spices).

Next the warm dishes (sicaklar) arrive, including börek (phyllo pastry parcels filled with cheese), arnavut ciğeri (fried liver) and karides güveç (shrimp cooked with butter).

Like the healing wisdom, the good conversation and the raki itself, everything on the table is meant to be shared.

Şerefinize! ("Good fortune!")

Tags:

turkey

food and cooking