Afghan airline makes a bumpy return By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY KABUL, Afghanistan =97 Check-in for Ariana Afghan Airlines' newest flight,= =20 from Frankfurt, Germany, to this war-ravaged capital, is surprisingly=20 friendly and efficient. Lines move quickly, and an English-speaking clerk=20 gives clear directions to the gate. The 20-year-old Airbus A-300 is worn=20 inside but meets industry minimums. Generic Hollywood music drifts down=20 from the overhead speakers. Then the doors close, and that German-like=20 efficiency fades. One flight attendant can't figure out how to don the=20 demonstration life jacket. Another quietly tells two nicotine-deprived=20 patrons to cheat on the flight's smoking ban. "Go in the back, away from=20 the bathrooms and children, as if you're doing nothing," he whispers. That= =20 Ariana falls short of making a good first impression is no surprise. This=20 new weekly service, begun Sept. 18, is Ariana's first scheduled service to= =20 and from the West in three decades. It's the start of Ariana's big push to= =20 become the airline of choice for Western business fliers and vacationers=20 traveling to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. "We passed some very bad days because of the wars and the U.N. sanctions,"= =20 says Feda Mohammad Fedawi, the chief of operations, who has spent 40 years= =20 in Afghan aviation, including 17 with the airline. Soon, he hopes, Ariana=20 will reach across Europe to New York and a partnership with an American=20 airline. The question is premature. Ariana has only three planes: the=20 Airbus and a pair of even older Boeing 727s. Two more Airbuses, donated by= =20 India, are scheduled to arrive in the next two months. In its heyday in the= =20 1970s, Ariana had 17 planes that flew to destinations including Rome and=20 Paris. Its customers included Europeans and Americans seeking the allure,=20 rug bargains, antiquities and, yes, hashish of Afghanistan. Prior to the=20 Soviet invasion of 1979, Ariana even had a DC-10 jumbo jet, and Pan=20 American airlines was a partner. But the Soviets took over in 1979, the=20 jumbo jet was sold and flights to the West were scrapped. The state-owned=20 airline slowly crumbled with the rest of Afghanistan. Civil wars in the=20 1990s reduced Kabul's ancient market and other tourist attractions to=20 rubble. International flights ended during the Taliban period when the=20 country came under United Nations sanctions. By the time the U.S. Air Force finished its bombing last November, only one= =20 mothballed 727 and an aged Russian-built propeller plane were intact.=20 Kabul's international airport was strewn with wreckage and its runways=20 pocked with craters. Today, Ariana is re-starting "pretty much from=20 scratch," says Fedawi. Though the fleet is tiny, Ariana still needs=20 international aid. India has lent pilots to Afghanistan until the airline's= =20 own pilots can be taught and pass qualification tests. Flight attendants=20 are training in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere until the new=20 training program in Kabul gets up to speed. Outside airlines in Jordan and= =20 India are maintaining the jets. Peru has lent a team of 25 technicians to=20 make sure the planes get off the ground from Kabul. Ariana intends to buy=20 two used turboprops. The one Soviet-era AN-24 that survived the war has=20 been grounded as unsafe. But the long-term plan to make Ariana a success is= =20 hardly airborne. ISAF, the international security force in Kabul, has=20 removed the land mines and provides security at Kabul airport, but threats= =20 remain. In mid-October, the United Nations for three days diverted its=20 flights from Kabul airport to a U.S. air base because of a terrorist=20 warning. Quality fuel, trucked in from Pakistan, is in short supply. The=20 airport lacks modern navigation aids and often electricity. A flight to=20 Frankfurt two weeks ago was delayed three hours because of a blackout.=20 There is no business-class hotel at the airport or anywhere else in=20 Afghanistan. Western visitors usually stay at U.N. guesthouses or at the=20 Kabul Inter-Continental, a once-luxurious high-rise that's now filthy and=20 decrepit and has no relationship with the famous hotel chain. The United Nations, which has been flying its own planes into Kabul from=20 Islamabad, Pakistan, could become a big Ariana customer if talks now=20 underway come to fruition. But attracting a broader market will take time=20 and improvements. Less than half the seats on the 232-seat Airbus from=20 Frankfurt in early October are filled. Tickets must still be purchased with= =20 cash. You can't check through your luggage from anyplace else. And the=20 journey is, well, still a bit adventurous. The bulk of the passengers appear to be prosperous Afghan exiles on their=20 way to visit the homeland. Their children play tag for hours in the aisles,= =20 unimpeded by the cabin attendants, who are oblivious to the fact that some= =20 passengers are trying to sleep on the overnight journey. After a refueling= =20 stop in Istanbul, breakfast is served. The hot aluminum trays are placed in= =20 passengers' bare hands, hardly a pleasant wake-up call. Fortunately, the=20 $705 for a round trip won't leave too many feeling burned. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (I95.5FM) http://www.i955fm.com (Radio Station I95.5FM) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************