Azerbaijan Airlines, AZAL to most of its passengers, is the flag carrier of Azerbaijan, flying from Baku's Heydar Aliyev International to Europe, the Gulf, Central Asia and beyond. It is a compact full-service operation with a clear split: Airbus narrowbodies and an Embraer for the regional network, two widebody types for the long legs.

The house style is consistency. Nearly every narrowbody carries the same real business product, a two-by-two recliner section at the nose, and the airline numbers its economy cabins from deep in the sequence, as if a much longer front cabin existed, a convention that briefly convinces first-timers they have boarded the wrong aircraft.

Fleet & aircraft

The A319, A320, A321neo and one of the two A320neo fits all carry the recliner business cabin; the other A320neo flies all-economy at the fullest fit for the type. The E190 is the odd one out in the friendliest way, two-by-two with no middle seats anywhere.

The widebodies split the long-haul work. The 767 carries an angle-flat business cabin with a solo centre column, deep recline short of level. The 787-8 is the flagship and the fleet's only three-class aircraft: fully flat beds up front, then a real premium economy in its own wider section, a rarity at an airline this size.

Cabin experience

Short-haul flying is predictable in the good sense: the recliner cabins deliver a wide chair for a few hours, economy is an orderly three-by-three and the paid legroom sits where the fleet always puts it, at first rows and exit bands. The A321neo's shallow bulkhead is the one marked row that under-delivers.

Long-haul, the 787 sets the standard: level beds in business and a premium economy that is a proper cabin rather than a curtain, flying the routes where AZAL faces its stiffest competition. The 767 remains the angled-bed alternative, at its strongest in the standalone centre seats.

Seat selection tips

In economy, learn the two family habits: restricted recline lands on the rows just ahead of each exit band, not on the exits, and the marked bulkhead rows sometimes carry less stretch than the label implies, the A321neo worst of all. The very back of every narrowbody sits beside the lavatories and leaves the aircraft last.

Window bookers should take care on two aircraft in particular: the E190's forward rows hide a run of badly aligned panes, and on the 767 the seats directly behind the bulkhead window pairs face blank wall, while the pairs themselves keep their glass and their marked legroom. On the 787, the premium economy front row trades the deepest legroom in its section against lavatory doors directly ahead.