TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia by Etihad, Belgrade - London
TRIP REPORT | INDEX
Trip taken: July 2019
Scheduled Time: 3 hours 5 minutes
Exactly one year after my previous flight to London Heathrow from Belgrade, I was ready for another trip on the same route. However, this year, there was one extra option. Air Serbia introduced a second daily flight to London, a slot given from one of Etihad’s subsidiaries. The timing of the flight was much more convenient, as the take off from Belgrade was scheduled at 16.15 which gave me more time to finish some business in the Serbian capital.
The time slot at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport for this flight turned out to be in one of the “sleepy” periods for the airport - there were just a few other flights at the same time, so the hallways and the counters were literally deserted.
Online check-in procedure went smoothly. I was automatically assigned an extra leg-room seat, however the middle one. With a polite question, the ground staff at Air Serbia check-in counters changed it to a window seat free of charge. This would cost me around 5 EUR online.
Right on time, the all-white Airbus A320-200 was parked at the gate. This flight is fully operated by Etihad, with one of their planes stripped of all the branding from the outside. This could bring some memories of the times when Jat Airways planes were flying all-white without branding, in the last decades of the company under that name.
Since this flight was recently introduced, and the number of tickets sold is still very limited, the choice of gate was A8. It is located in the oldest section of the departures level at Nikola Tesla Airport - the one that also reminds of some old times. The waiting room was very small, with insufficient seating for an Airbus A320-200. However, since the flight was far from full - it was enough. At these gates, there are no toilets or the opportunity to buy water or food before boarding the plane. With Nikola Tesla Airport rules, any liquid would be taken from you before getting to the gate, so this might be a serious problem - especially when flying Air Serbia. The need for refurbishment of this part of the airport was visible also with water dripping from the air-conditioning system.
The boarding procedure was completed on time, as several dozen passengers filled mostly the window seats of the aircraft. The interior of this Airbus featured Air Serbia branding on the seats. The crew was dressed in Etihad uniforms, with one member speaking Serbian. It was interesting to see the mixture of Etihad and Air Serbia print material in the seat pockets.
The flight to LHR was smooth and nice, with some mild turbulence over Austria, during which the seat-belt sign was on. The crew had enough time to do two rounds of selling products from the menu, with the option to pay in cash or by card - still only in RSD and EUR, not in GBP.
During the flight that took slightly less than three hours, the notorious “salty fish and water” was served to all passengers, free of charge.
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| Air Serbia’s on-flight menu has a typo – Plazma should be Biscuit, not a Buiscuit |
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| There were exactly 17 salty fishes in the small bag that was barely sealed |
The arrival at LHR was on schedule and the permission to land was granted quickly - something that is not so often the case in London. Just like in Belgrade, the timing of the flight was good as the long queues at Terminal 4 for passport control were gone. The whole procedure of getting into the UK lasted less than 15 minutes. Even with such short procedure, the luggage was already waiting at the belts - one of the greatest and fastest delivery services I have experienced recently.
The choice of this Air Serbia flight proved to be the absolutely the right one. Good time slots, very comfortable flight, quick service and timely arrival were all the positive asepcts of JU388. The return option was also perfectly timed - flying from London at 20.45 local time gave me plenty of opportunities for spending another day in the city. With this combination being priced the same as the “old” Air Serbia flight, it would be expected to see more passengers on board. But the promotion of this flight, as well as highlighting all the opportunities it brings, has not been taken seriously by the company and hasn't been as successful as this journey itself.
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