After a few days in the Netherlands, it was time to return home. Since I had to be in Amsterdam for most of the day, I opted to go with the latest option possible which was this JU flight, partly operated by KLM. When it came up, I booked it without too much doubt as my last time in Belgrade was back in 2022 and I was quite curious to see the expanded airport and try the new Air Serbia ATRs. The flight set me back about 187 euros (or, well, my employer) with checked-in baggage included.
Although at times a bit expensive, public transport in Netherlands is very good and when it came to reaching the airport, it was no exception. I arrived in Schiphol within 20 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal station with the ticket costing 6 euros.
So far so good, until I made my way into one of the self check-in kiosks where I was redirected to a check-in agent. Hmm, I thought it would have to do something with it being a JU flight number. However, to my complete surprise, I was informed that I had no seat and I would be on standby! The agent instructed to check with the gate agents 40 minutes before the departure time. After the initial feeling of anxiety died down, I figured an extra night in Amsterdam wouldn't be the end of the world. But I really, really wanted to make this trip report, so full of hope and optimism I swiftly marched to our departure gate, D29.
I must say, my experience today in Schiphol was excellent, no lines, everything went like a breeze. And those apron views never get old, I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures even though I was slightly late.
Shortly after finding a seat near my gate, while waiting patiently, I receive an SMS. It's from KLM and looks like I'll have a seat for tonight! After the agents arrived at the gate, I would soon learn that I was not the only one with this problem, as I see multiple people asking for their seat confirmation. Maybe they were also flying under a JU flight number? Who knows.
Regardless, with my new boarding pass in hand I caught the first glimpse of our aircraft. A beautiful 1-year old Embraer E195-E2, registered as PH-NXW which had just arrived after a short hop from Heathrow.
Boarding commenced in no time and I happily sat in my seat, 03A for today. I would soon find out that the flight was not even fully booked (imagine all that worry), which meant that with the empty seat next to me I would have a pretty comfortable 2 hours ahead. Even if that weren't the case, this new Embraer's cabin was fantastic with plenty of legroom, fully adjustable headrest and very relaxing lighting.
Upon reaching our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet, the very pleasant and lovely cabin crew started the onboard service. It included complimentary drinks, a small cake and a sandwich. I don't particularly enjoy cold sandwiches, but it actually tasted quite nice and fresh.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, and it wasn't very long until the captain informed us that we had started our descent towards Belgrade. We touched down on runway 12L at 23:02 local time, where we then proceeded to park at a remote stand.
After a lengthy bus ride, I started making my way to Air Serbia's transfer desk in order to receive the boarding pass for my next flight. Walking through the expanded airport I could certainly get the feeling that it is a proper hub. I needed quite some time to reach the C gates, although there appeared to still be some things under construction. Maybe I'll need to visit it again a couple of more times in the future.
Upon catching the first glimpse of my gate, I realised that it would be another flight with an empty seat next to me. On the contrary, the flights to Varna and Thessaloniki that were boarding next to us seemed pretty full.
Once again, boarding commenced and after 30 seconds waiting in line, I entered the bus where I counted about 20 passengers in total. The majority seemed to be Scandinavians who I assume connected from Stockholm.
My last ride for today would be a 12-year old ATR 72-600, registered as YU-ALZ.
First cabin impression (apart from the extremely unfriendly purser); what a drastic improvement. The renewal process of Air Serbia's ATR fleet was long overdue but as an avgeek I'm also glad I managed to catch a ride on the old ATR's last months. Many people obviously dislike turboprops, however, these newer ATRs offer a much improved passenger experience in all aspects.
We left Belgrade at 00:59, just 4 minutes after schedule and proceeded to turn south on a direct heading towards Tirana.
The flight was pretty calm and passed rather quickly. The complimentary onboard service consisted of a mini Plazma biscuits pack and a small bottle of water. We touched Albanian soil on 01:52 for a total flight time of 53 minutes.
After exiting the aircraft I was able to reach my car within 5 minutes, taking advantage of the passport e-gates and no other flights arriving at that time.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this report!
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
Great trip report and pics, thank you.
ReplyDeleteNice to see BEG slowly changing.
KLM's sandwiches are rather good and always fresh, unlike JU sandwiches which taste like they were made days ago.
+100
DeleteJU sandwiches taste like plain sandwiches. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t know what’s this frenzy of constantly saying they taste stale. I had one on my flight from Porto to Belgrade last month and it was just that - a plain sandwich that tasted like it was made that morning.
DeleteFrenzy is one to two commentators repeating the stale sandwich comment.
DeleteAnon 09:11 Thanks for your words.
DeleteJU gets their sandwiches from a private company in Zemun. Their expiry date is one week. It depends how old your sandwich is. Some get it fresh some don't.
DeleteWell, I literally posted a trip report on here when I flew on JU BEG-LCA and the sandwich was like 5 days old. You even have a picture.
DeleteWhen it comes to JU catering, it's a hit or miss. On one flight it's fine while on the other it's bad. There are no rules. However saying that every sandwich is fine is wrong. This comes from someone who has over 70 flights on Air Serbia.
Nice trip report btw.
I am very happy to see that permanently unhappy "passengers" are complaining only about sandwiches. That means that everything else is perfectly fine with JU. And sandwiches are served before their expiry date. Someone likes them, someone not.
DeleteNice trip report, thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs for the empty seat on KL, my guess is that some transfer passengers were late so they were offloaded. That's why they confirmed your seat and why there were several empty ones.
KL's ontime performance isn't always the best.
Thank you. That makes sense, looks like I got lucky then!
DeleteGreat report, tnx for sharing it with us! Greetings for Albanian readers!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the words, my pleasure.
DeleteNice to read about Tirana! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the words!
DeleteThank you for sharing your experience with us.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure!
DeleteThanks! Great report.
ReplyDeleteThanks, appreciate it!
DeleteExcellent report - enjoyed it. BEG is looking good and, personally, I like turboprops for shorter flights! My flight BEG-LJU not too long ago was very comfortable on the ATR. Looking forward to your next report.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteNice trip report! BTW, the reason you had ample legroom on your KLM flight is because you were seated in the Economy Comfort section (the first 6-7 rows depending on aircraft) that have 5 cm of extra pitch vs. the rest of the cabin, which is significantly less comfortable.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, I realized that after I had wrote the report :D
DeleteStrange there was no business class on the flight
DeleteThe 2 first rows were business. You can just barely make out the "divider" in one of the cabin pictures.
DeleteA great product from KLM. I checked the flight prices to BEG and they are very competitive compared with JU. No wonder they are so successful on this route.
ReplyDeleteIf they were that successful then they would be sending B738/73W
DeleteThe issues at the moment is refuelling, Because of their internal policies KL is one of two airlines not refuelling in Belgrade over the NIS sanctions. This makes the flights very expensive for the airline, particularly the overnight one.
DeleteWell this can become an issue for all airlines at BEG very soon
DeleteNot really. Workaround has been found but KLM still doesn't want to be a part of it.
DeleteThanks for the great report.
ReplyDeleteAs a Serbian living in the Netherlands, for me, those E2s put KLM miles ahead of AirSerbia on this route (which often sends GetJet or Bulgaria Air planes). Not to mention that KLM is almost always the cheaper option too.
Thanks for the words. Not easy to compete against brand new aircraft I guess.
DeleteI don't know, for me KL is always quite expensive when I look. Cheapest flight is always on LH via MUC.
DeleteKLM has strange logic, for instance, recently we needed to be in AMS for business, it was way more conveniant for us to drive to ZAG instead taking flight from LJU, where we live. The schedule from LJU makes no sense
ReplyDeleteThis is because of slot constraints at AMS, if a flight is higher yield, it will get a better slot hence the not-so-interesting routes get worse slot times..
DeleteHow would AMS know which flights are higher and lower yields?
DeleteKLM knows, Amsterdam airport does not care 😄
DeleteGood report . And that new Embraer looks impressive!
ReplyDeleteWe need more competition to AMS.
ReplyDeleteThat ATR looked kind of empty
ReplyDelete