Review: SCAT Boeing 737-800 – Almaty to Astana

This is review details my experience on a SCAT Boeing 737-800 in May 2023. You can read my much more detailed full trip report of this flight by clicking here.

About the Airline

Expectations

Pre-Flight Experience

Admittedly, this flight was not one that I had intended to take. However, after being left high and dry by Southern Sky Airlines, I ended up having to book a last-minute ticket with SCAT Airlines. Opting to fly with them over Air Astana, Fly Arystan and Qazaq Air as they proved to be the cheapest option. Fortunately, booking via SCAT Airlines’ website threw up no issues.

Seeing as I had purchased my ticket with less than 24 hours to go until departure, once booked, I was then able to check-in online. As with booking the ticket, this was quick and easy, and I was able to select a seat for free across the aircraft.

Costs

Airport Experience

Departing during the morning rush, I found Almaty Airport to be awash with passengers. With a mobile boarding pass and no hold luggage, once inside Almaty Airport I made a beeline for the entrance to the domestic security checkpoint. However, once there, my mobile boarding pass was rejected and I would instead have to go to SCAT Airlines’ counter to receive a paper one. Fortunately, this did not take too long to do and I was soon able to head back to security.

That morning, a delay to the inbound flight meant that my flight up to Astana was delayed, however, no announcements regarding this were made in the terminal as I waited. As our scheduled departure time neared, a crowd of Astana bound passengers could already be seen around the gate indicating that boarding would be a chaotic experience. Like many flights from Almaty, the limited number of jetbridges meant that boarding would be via bus, and, once boarding commenced, this was not announced in any particular order. Following some jostling, I made my way onto the waiting bus and was soon whisked out to the aircraft.

Seat and Cabin

Having previously been operated by Turkish low cost giant Pegasus, onboard this aircraft still featured this carrier’s interior. This consisted of 189 firm, thin and upright seats which were covered in a dark pleather cover and featured yellow stitching and red seatbelt straps in line with Pegasus’ branding. These were topped with a blue leather headrest cover on which SCAT Airlines’ motif was debossed.

When it came to comfort, it is fair to say that I wouldn’t want to spend any long slogs onboard this particular aircraft. The seat was firm and wasn’t overly spacious either. However, on the plus side, this was clean and tidy, and marks and scratches appeared to be minimal.

Lavatories

Fortunately, the toilets appeared to be in a fair and reasonable state, and whilst nothing luxurious, they served their important purpose.

Inflight Entertainment

For those not in window seats and thus not able to pass the time by watching the impressive Kazakh scenery during the flight, SCAT Airlines provides the Aspan inflight magazine. This was atypical of many inflight magazines and featured several articles on SCAT Airlines’ destinations, interspersed by plenty of advertisements as well as a section on the airline at the end. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the demographic of the carrier’s passengers, all bar one short section, the appropriately named ‘Welcome to Kazakhstan’, was in Kazakh and Russian only. This English section highlighted the sights of Turkestan, Kazakh hospitality and several other things albeit with a fair number of grammatical and spelling errors.

Catering

Once upon a not-too-distant time, SCAT Airlines offered complimentary catering on all flights. However today, nothing is offered to those on domestic flights and instead, a round of buy-on-board service is undertaken.

Crew

Although my interactions with the crew were minimal, overall they seemed friendly enough, and I was therefore left with nothing to complain about in this regard.

Summary

Ignoring the delay, my flight with SCAT Airlines left me with little to complain about. Granted, the seat was not overly comfortable; however, it could be tolerated given the short flight time. The crew were friendly enough and left me with no complaints, and the aircraft was clean and in good condition.