TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Larnaca - Milan via Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

Written by Lazar Živanić

On the 27th of January, I flew with Air Serbia from Larnaca International Airport to Milano Malpensa Airport. I chose this option as it was the cheapest for the mentioned date and I wanted to experience Air Serbia several years after flying with them last time.

I paid €106 for the entire trip with check-in luggage, while the second cheapest option was with Aegean at €150 via Athens with carry-on luggage only. My trip consisted of flight JU887 at 04.10 local time from Larnaca International Airport to Belgrade, arrival at 05.50 local time operated by Air Serbia’s A319-100 AP. And the second flight, JU540, from Belgrade to Milan Malpensa Airport at 07.00 local time with arrival time of 08.45, operated by Marathon Airlines and the Embraer E175.

Interestingly, there are 10 flights per week between Larnaca and Belgrade, 8 operated by Air Serbia and 2 by Wizz Air, which puts Belgrade as the fourth most frequently served European city from Larnaca during the winter season after Athens (79 flights per week) and Thessaloniki (17/18 per week) in Greece, as well as London (all airports: 20-25 flights per week) in the UK.

My journey started in Nicosia where I took a shuttle bus to Larnaca International Airport at 00.30, and I arrived at the airport at 01.20. At that hour, only the Costa Coffee bar was open at the car park in front of the airport. When I checked the departure board, I was surprised to see that there were around thirty flights scheduled to depart that day with Air Serbia flight JU887 being the first one for the day at 04.10.

The check-in desk opened a bit over 2 hours before departure, Air Serbia had three desks: one for economy class check-in, one for business class, and one for luggage drop off for those who completed their formalities online. While waiting in line to drop off my bag that was checked through to Milan, I heard a lot of Russians and Cypriots. I must admit even though Air Serbia improved its mobile app, it is not so user-friendly when it comes to check-in and eventually when I managed to check-in it did not have the option to store boarding passes inside the app.

After checking in, I passed through passport control, which took around three minutes, and went to security, which took five minutes in total. Right after security there is a huge duty-free shop that was surprisingly open and had cheap water for €1.90, or typical Cypriot sweets for €3.50. But that was not all. After the duty-free shop, there were three shops open in the food corner, which had fresh baked food. There was also a tobacco shop. These facilities are missing at Belgrade Airport - bars/restaurants that are open, as well as greater choice.

Our flight was departing from gate 44 which had an air bridge. The aircraft arrived late at 03.50, so we departed with a 20-minute delay. Overall, I liked Larnaca Airport, it is nice, spacious, and with a lot of seating areas, as well as good food options.

Larnaca to Belgrade

The reason for the delay was not given, but when the boarding process was completed, the captain welcomed passengers and provided information about the flight. As I was amongst the last to board, I saw that out of the twelve business class seats, seven were occupied. Generally, few seats were left unoccupied, and I would say the load factor was around 90%. My seat was 14C. There was enough legroom, but the seat was unconformable and the recline was not working. Another minus from my side were the cheap material used for the headrest. However, the plane was clean.

During the safety demo, a recorded announcement was played. The cabin crew were friendly and smiled all the time. Right after we reached cruising attitude, the complimentary meal was served, consisting of a sandwich with chicken and a small bottle of water. I was surprised by this because I was not expecting it, and the sandwich was not bad. Few months earlier I flew with Iberia from Madrid to Munich, which was a bit over three hours and we were not offered even a glass of water.

We landed in Belgrade with a 20 minute delay, and I heard one Cypriot passenger, who seems to frequently fly with Air Serbia, say to her friend that the flight is usually late by 20 minutes and that she hopes to make her connection to Amsterdam.

We disembarked via the air bridge. At the exit there was a guy at the door indicating where transfer passengers should go, but to my surprise he did not ask for people to show their boarding passes for their next flight. Hopefully this changes so the incident from a few weeks ago, when transfer and arriving passengers got mixed up, does not occur again.

Belgrade to Milan

The gate for my next flight was C10. On my way to it, I stopped by the transfer desk to ask whether my bag would be automatically moved to my next flight, and they assured me that it would happen. However, it did not happen, as I will explain below.

Between the two flights, I had almost one hour, partly because the flight to Milan was delayed by about 20 minutes. Before boarding, holders of non-EU and non-Serbian passports were called up for a document check, and there were around 20 people. 

The cabin crew welcomed us with a smile, and the captain greeted us after boarding was completed. I had seat 21A, and there was enough legroom. I noticed that the flight was full, with around a 95% load, and I heard various languages being spoken, including Italian, Russian, Chinese, Greek (two guys who were also on my previous flight), etc. A recording of the safety instructions was played. After reaching cruising altitude, a crew member offered a small bottle of water and Neoblice cookies, which was a nice touch for a one and a half hour flight.

We arrived with a delay of 20 minutes at one of my favourite airports, as it is super easy to navigate, and it offers stunning views of the Alps during takeoff and landing. However, what seemed like a nice experience turned into a bit of an agony.

After passing passport control, where I waited for about 20-25 minutes (not too long for Malpensa airport), I had an unpleasant experience. My bag did not appear on the carousel. After waiting for 20 minutes and seeing no luggage showing up, and with no one else waiting, plus being among the last ones from my flight that passed passport control, I went to the lost & found.

There, I saw nine other passengers from my flight in line - eight Russians and one Italian. In short, I waited in line for one and a half hours to fill out the complaint form. The desk officer informed me that this happens too often with Air Serbia when it comes to connecting flights via Belgrade. I received my luggage after four days.

I genuinely hope that Air Serbia improves this aspect of the journey because everything else went smoothly without any problems. The luggage experience could have been avoided in my opinion. I would understand if this happened in a scenario with only 20 minutes between flights, but with one hour between them, it seems a bit unprofessional. Waiting for my bag for a full four days also seems excessively long, considering there is at least one flight per day from Belgrade to Malpensa. I would also like to add that Air Serbia's Facebook page was quick in responding to my questions and was helpful.

To conclude, I am happy to see that Air Serbia is developing, being used by Cypriots for transferring to Western Europe, that the cabin crew are always smiling and friendly but there is a long path to becoming a bigger player and I really hope that they will succeed.

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