TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Lisbon - Belgrade

My initial booking was OPO-FRA-BEG but due to the cancellation of the OPO-FRA leg, I was rebooked by Lufthansa to fly LIS-BEG on JU565 on 7th June and that is how I ended up on this flight and in Economy.

The check-in process at Lisbon Airport was as efficient as one could hope, and they were happy to check-in my hand luggage in order to save space in the overhead compartments. I asked if I could change my seat for an emergency exit one due to my height but was informed that the system did not allow this change. The security check at Lisbon airport could have done with a couple more corridors and a few more officers but, even so, it was not too problematic.

Boarding started some 45 minutes ahead of scheduled departure time which I thought was an excellent idea as that way we were likely to take off on time, especially in view of the fact that we were going to get bussed to the aircraft.

After submitting my boarding pass at the gate I found myself on a stairwell with more people piling up behind me, all of us waiting to start boarding the bus. That took some ten minutes and once we were on it we realised it was a bit stuffy and the air-conditioning wasn’t terribly efficient but were ready to grin and bear it. However, once the bus reached the aircraft we remained standing on a closed bus with insufficient air-conditioning for at least another 15 minutes without any explanation given. After the passengers started complaining and shouting in various languages, the driver relented and opened the bus doors allowing us to breathe again normally but asking the passengers not to leave the bus. It turned out all three buses carrying passengers had arrived but without permission to allow passengers on board the plane.

When permission was finally granted, no one was there to direct the passengers on which side of the plane to board from according to their seat row which is how the pandemonium began. Many passengers were carrying pieces of hand luggage larger than permitted to bring on board the plane but Air Serbia did not seem to care to enforce that particular rule which led to an additional delay and frayed nerves until all the bags were finally stowed away. Eventually the doors were closed whereupon we heard the voice of the captain apologising for the delay which, according to him, was caused by the inefficiency of Lisbon Airport staff and the whole luggage confusion. The second could easily have been avoided had Air Serbia cared to enforce the rule on hand luggage dimensions and quantity.

I was seated in seat 9D where there was precious little leg room, and the pitch is frankly on a par with LCCs. Under my seat was a trodden piece of something and the panelling below the window was coming off.

We eventually took off just over one hour later than scheduled. After take-off I asked one of the flight attendants if I could change seats and sit in 11D which had remained unoccupied and which was sporting a summer hat but was told that this was not allowed as one had to pay extra for those seats and since I hadn’t paid extra, the airline evidently preferred that seat to fly empty rather than offer their passengers additional comfort. Since accommodating passengers is standard practice among most flag carriers I’ve flown with, I changed seats all the same. However, some five minutes later another flight attendant came round to ask me to move back to my seat. From then on, that seat was again occupied by a hat owned by a lady who had purchased it somewhere and did not want it squashed. I am not sure if they had paid extra for the hat to have extra legroom.

Since many of us were obliged to keep our legs in the aisle, the initial flight attendant, while trying to push through a forest of legs with a trolley complained and said they could not do their job this way, I mentioned it was standard practice among flag carriers to offer more comfortable seats to their passengers should some be available. His reply was that on other airlines they do it out of their own good will. When I asked why Air Serbia and its staff were not prepared to show any goodwill to their passengers he remained silent. I suggested they should perhaps take it up with the management as it would make their lives much easier.

Furthermore, seat 11C was given to a passenger who had evidently paid for extra legroom but in my humble opinion was unlikely to be able to help the crew in case of an emergency. 

All this has convinced me that profit is the only thing that governs Air Serbia’s decisions while passenger comfort and security are left to play second fiddle. I am no expert but I cannot believe that reduced mobility should be overlooked in emergency exits. Still, it seems that a few extra euros will convince Air Serbia of anything. Only a few days before that I was on a Lufthansa flight where their staff went out of their way to accommodate a tall passenger and he hadn’t even asked.

This was the state of the aisle on our Air Serbia flight.

One must recognise the fact that Air Serbia is making efforts at pretending it is not a LCC by offering a wet wipe, a small bottle of water and a sandwich to all passengers, though their dietary requirements be damned as everyone gets the same thing.

The bread was somewhat stale, and the lettuce and tomatoes had seen better days but, by now, no one seemed to care anymore.

The toilets were reasonably clean though the toilet seat cover and hand paper towel dispensers looked rather empty and forlorn.

But I suppose money had to be saved on those and perhaps even on air-conditioning as the front half of the cabin was uncomfortably stuffy and hot. Most passengers were asleep, it being a red-eye flight, but I was not sure if they were just tired or had collapsed due to an uncomfortably high temperature in the cabin.

I forgot to mention that all this was taking place on the aircraft that bears the name of Novak Djokovic. If I were in his place, I would make a polite request to Air Serbia to remove my name from that or, indeed, all their aircraft until they decided to take better care of both their aircraft and their passengers. Right now, the state of the Novak Djokovic aircraft seemed more like the aircraft version of the picture of Dorian Gray.

We landed in Belgrade some 23 minutes later than planned and in spite of yet more kerfuffle with the oversized and numerous pieces of luggage we disembarked fairly quickly, most likely because quite a lot of the passengers were worried about catching their connecting flights and some of us just to get away from the whole miserable experience that was flight JU565 LIS-BEG on 07JUN25.

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