TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Belgrade - Brussels in business

TRIP REPORT


This Thursday I flew from Belgrade to Brussels with Air Serbia. I purchased a business class ticket as it was just a couple of thousand dinars more than the economy fare with luggage, so I thought why not.





Following check-in, I headed to the new centralised security area. The process is very quick. There are clearly marked lanes for business and economy class passengers. The new security machines do not require you to take out laptops, or take off watches, belts etc. The trays are automated, and several people can place their bags at the same time. So, the screening is much quicker than before.



After passing passport control, I walked around the new area of the terminal. It was interesting seeing Belgrade Airport staff now using scooters to get to the gates.







After having a walk, I headed to the Air Serbia lounge, which was busy since it had a lot of flights that afternoon, although most of the passengers inside the lounge seemed to be Russian. When I got seated, one of the staff came over with the menu and took the drinks order. I only had something to drink and then headed to the gate at the designated boarding time.



The gate for the flight was A3 and they have started taking down the glass walls between the gate area and the rest of the terminal that separated arriving and departing passengers. Despite the aircraft being ready, boarding didn’t start until the designated departure time. As I looked outside, I was surprised to see how little luggage there was on the flight as one single cart was enough. My guess is most people purchased the fare without luggage. I then looked around the gate and saw that most people brought their roller suitcases with them.




Finally, just after 6PM, when we were supposed to have departed, we started boarding. Business class passengers were invited first. There was a total of four passengers in business out of a total of eight seats. For economy I would say around a 100 passengers. With exception to myself, all were foreigners in business class. There seemed to generally be many foreigners on this flight, mostly men in suits. The crew in the front consisted of the purser, who was older and from the Jat era, as well as a young crew member. Both were very friendly and professional. Boarding was completed relatively quickly with the pilot coming over the PA to apologise for the delay, noting that they were waiting to get approval from air traffic authorities in Belgium, which was the reason for not being able to depart on time.



Prior to departure, the crew came around and issued menus. It consisted of three main meal choices. Considering the flight time of just a bit over two hours, I think the options are decent. The crew also offered newspapers and after a while came back to get everyone’s food and beverage order.





I also took a few photos also of the meal choices for the return to Belgrade.


We pushed back around twenty minutes behind the departure time at which point the crew performed the safety demonstration. It is done manually by the crew members although the instructions are recorded.


Shortly after departure, the crew came around and distributed the meals. It tasted good but they could perhaps work a bit on the presentation. Drinks were served at the same time.




As we reached cruising altitude the captain came over the speaker and gave us detailed information of the cities we would fly over and other flight information. He once again apologised for the delay. I have to note again that both crew members in business were really friendly. They offered drink refills several times during the flight and chatted with passengers as well. The passenger in front of me, who was Belgian, knew some Serbian so the older cabin crew started talking to her about how she learned Serbian. The younger crew member saw the book I was reading and started talking to me about it. Overall, they were quite nice.

The trays were cleared quickly after everyone finished their meals and we were offered tea and coffee as well local newspapers.

The seats are the regular economy class seats with the blocked middle seat. Each of them contained the Air Serbia magazine, as well as the Elevate Deli and Bar menu, which is used by economy passengers. As I could hear from all the munching behind me, it seems passengers were given the complimentary potato chips on this flight.




As we started our descent, the captain came again over the speaker to give us the latest landing information. He apologised for the delay for a third time and soon enough we touched down in Brussels. Due to strong headwind, we didn’t make up the delay during the flight but were late just 20 minutes overall. The taxi was short, and we parked at the air bridge. Within several minutes I reached the baggage claim area as the airport was deserted and there was no one at passport control. Overall, it was a nice flight with Air Serbia.


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Comments

  1. Anonymous09:52

    Great report, tnx for sharing.
    I am happy to hear cabine load was that good. I hope they will start increasing Brussels as for a long time it was just once a week and for 30 people per flight.
    Proud of AirSerbia!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      BRU was traditionally a weak market from BEG. Hopefully transfers help improve this route and hopefully Sochi also connects to it. I think it's a shame JU's night network is still weak.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:22

      Yes, underused.

      Istanbul should be a night flight ATR/A319.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:28

      Talking of IST and JU, their A332 on the 18th is sold on IST-BEG. I suppose they made good money on it.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:55

    These ATC restrictions are going to be a big problem this summer. Restrictions already start in Hungary because of staffing shortages. Austria and Poland are experiencing the same.

    Btw for me the most interesting part was seeing Montenegro E95 parked at B stands. I wonder if they used a remote stand because there were no available gates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:11

      Yes, while we were waiting to board an Air Serbia A319 also parked next to Air Montenegro and passengers disembarked via the stairs and onto the bus.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11:28

    They need to put a new carpet in front of business class check-ins.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:52

    Thank you for interesting and detailed trip report :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for a nice trip report. I find the business product to be very competitive in Europe (excluding Aeroflot and THY). Pitty that they don't reinstall the business class seats.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous21:46

    Ok, JU business product may be better in general compared to other Euro carriers, but yet again they serve pasta and bread which are both quite cheap. I also think 7€ for 2 beers quite a lot.
    Anyway, regarding the Brussels route, they should focus on more business travellers as it is purely a more business and EU destination. The city itself is quite boring and grey. They just have a plaza, some chocolate and beer stores and that is it. The central station area is quite ugly. Brussels is not my cup of tea for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I disagree completely. Brussels have so many nice cafés and restaurants, is not grey. Central Station is very old and is not biggest in the city. Brussels has a charm and recommended for visit, city break or longer. Has train connection with London, 2 hours with Eurostar and with Paris. Cologne is also close. Good connected with the bus and train with Charloir airport, that has a lot connections with LCC with almost whole Europe.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous01:50

    Can't wait for low costers to take over the market, so that we get some affordable flights - instead of super pricey Air Serbia.Hopefully soon!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous19:54

    I wouldn't book a flight with Air Serbia. I made a horrible experience with them. In my case, also the Federal Agency of Civil Aviation (of Switzerland) confirmed me, that Air Serbia regularly breaks the law and simply doesn't reply to complaints when it suits them.. A stupid call center agent even admitted it on the phone (that they break the law).
    Save yourself the trouble and best use another airline ;)

    ReplyDelete

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