TRIP REPORT
I travelled on Austrian Airlines this Friday (two days ago) to Vienna. I later had a connecting flight to Hamburg, but I will share with you the first part of the journey since it involved an EX-YU airport/route.
Check in at Belgrade was simple. It was performed jointly with the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt which departs within twenty minutes of the Austrian flight. Even before check in for all Lufthansa group airlines was conducted jointly at Belgrade Airport. After passing passport control, I had a seat at the new café on “Tesla Square” and waited for boarding. Lufthansa and Austrian were parked next to each other. My flight was a bit over half full. Considering most Serbian citizens who don’t have residency in Austria or elsewhere in the EU can’t enter any EU country, I guess it wasn’t bad.
The aircraft used was an Embraer E195. Upon boarding all passengers were given a disinfectant wipe. I think the Embraer is a very comfortable aircraft. At each seat there was a safety card and a duty-free magazine. We pushed back right on time and headed to Vienna. It was a relatively short flight. There was limited service on board but it was still offered. The crew passed through the cabin offering tea, coffee and water. For comparison, Lufthansa currently just offers all passengers on short haul flights a bottle of water and nothing else, so this was more generous.
After the drinks service the crew passed with duty free items and some passengers actually made purchases.
Before you knew it, we were already descending into Vienna. The flight was very short. In terms of Covid documentation, it was checked in Belgrade (PCR test and right of entry into EU) and the same was done in Vienna (I had to pass passport control since I was connecting onto a flight in the Schengen Zone).
Overall, the flight was uneventful but the crew was pleasant, the aircraft was comfortable and the service was OK in comparison to their mother company.
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
How was the load to HAM? Was it a Q400?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this interesting trip report.
Thanks. Yes it was a Q400, load was about 50%.
DeleteThanks! how was the atmosphere at VIE? Was it empty and calm? Are shops open?
DeleteSome shops were working some not, airport was relatively calm. Hamburg was dead.
DeleteI saw on their website that they have ambitious 4 daily from the summer season. I guess they are hoping to profit from the covid passports.
ReplyDeleteI like OS, they are a classy airline.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting uniform.
DeleteFlew over 100 airlines. OS is among 10 worst. Overpriced, without human touch, average service, average fleet, the worst attitude ever of employees, cabin crew in particular, ugly livery, ugly uniforms, seat pitch on some planes (767 DXB-VIE one of my worst flights), basement cattle gates on Schwechat for ex-yu flights and so on and so on
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DeleteWhat is that strange Ethiopian flight to Bangui?
ReplyDeleteIt carried Serbian peacekeeping troops.
DeleteFrom Kiev to Minsk passing by Bangui, Belgrade has quite a diverse list of airlines for the Covid period.
ReplyDeleteAUA will start shortly BuyOnBoard as well! Not even water will be offered for free, just sweets for all flights under 180 minutes... ;-(((
ReplyDeletehttps://www.austrianairlines.ag/Press/PressReleases/Press/2020/11/079.aspx?sc_lang=de&mode=%7b30999B4B-42D0-45A6-B671-FE5E3CB68ED8%7d