Wednesday, May 06, 2009

To Sweden - Alternatives?

On searching the Erbil International Airport site, I found these other Airlines operating between Sotckholm and Erbil: Viking Airlines and Resnu Airlines. Upon visiting the Viking site, I found information indicating that the flights to Erbil were operating in coperation with Aer Olympic. The Air Olympic site will allow me to book a flight online (on a Viking plane) at the cost of $4,998 SEK (or $630 US) with all flights leaving and returning on Wednesdays. I called Resnu, as they would not allow me to book online, and they said they fly with Viking, but had no connection with Aer Olympic. All their flights leave and return on Tuesdays (strange that Viking would have planes coming and going for 2 different airlines on two consecutive days of the week...). Flights in July and August through Resnu cost $1000 US. Today is a Wednesday and there appear to be flights coming and out on Viking on the airport's website, so I guess I do this online and forget atrocious Atrosh? Please PLEASE you travellers to and from Sweden, share your experiences...

***************************UPDATE ***************************

5 hours later: As I was leaving the university today, I called Resnu and asked them outright about the Wednesday flights. Kawa from Resnu gave me a number and I discovered that Aer Olympic operates out of Miran Aviation located next to the Me & You ice cream shop in Iskan. He claims Atrosh no longer flies (which is strange as they still answer the phone and quote prices and flight times), but explained that Resnu are charter flights, but Aer Olympic run regular flights (as of 2 months ago). If you are bringing tons of goodies back from overseas, better to go with Aer Olympic as, while both use Viking planes, the Aer Olympic planes and the luggage allowance are bigger (30 kg as opposed to 20 kg). COST: $650 USD (less or more depends on how much in advance you book).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would not trust Aer Olympic, or Viking for that matter.

see the articles in Aftonbladet (Swedish)

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article96683.ab

http://www.aftonbladet.se/incoming/article125572.ab