New Year’s Eve in The Desert,
Sadly, the night of December 31 was the low point of an otherwise very pleasant trip to Oman. In a fluke, I decided to travel to the sunny sultanate to avoid hardships in France: transport strikes and energy shortages were predicted during the holidays. Strikes there were but I managed to avoid them and the weather was far too warm to force power outages. Oman is about eight hours from Paris and the day flight over Anatolia was mesmerizing: Barren valleys and snowcapped mountains, the rugged sea coastline of the Black Sea. We flew near the snowcapped Süphan Volcano and Lake Van. What was equally fascinating was the dense air traffic. In one hour, I counted 12 planes flying at different levels. The war in Ukraine has forced many airlines to divert flights and use the Turkish airspace: President Erdoḡan is ripping a nice profit from these overflight fees. ...