TRIP REPORT: Wizz Air, Belgrade - Heraklion and back
Flight: W6 4003/4004, Belgrade-Heraklion-Belgrade
Aircraft: Airbus A321-231, HA-LTI
Age: 1.8 years
Last week I flew on Wizz Air’s flight from Belgrade to Heraklion, and back. This was my first flight after one and half years, my first time on Wizz Air, first time on the Airbus A321, and the first time with just a backpack. New times require new strategies. I used to fly on this route on charter flights with Jat Airways, and several years back with Ellinair and Aegean. This year Ellinair had flights in the middle of the night, which was not suitable for me, so I decided to try Wizz Air and that was a good decision, since Ellinair canceled all flights to Belgrade because of financial problems of its parent company, Mouzenidis Travel.
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| Wizz Air A321 and Aegean Airlines A320 at Heraklion Airport |
I bought tickets for this flight some 10 days before, and it really was a low fare ticket. I like the possibility, which Wizz Air offers, that according to your own preferences and with basic, low cost fare, you can buy extra luggage, priority boarding, automatic check-in, seats (from 'normal' one at a price of 7 euros to emergency exit for almost 20 euros), transfer to the airport, and even the possibility of getting information on the status of the flight on your mobile phone, for a little less than 1 euro.
I arrived at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport with high expectations concerning all the activities that are in progress regarding airport modernisation and future development. Although I checked-in for the flight online, I had to go back to the check in desk and get a printed boarding pass. I realised that this was a new procedure, in order to check if you had the necessary documents for entering Greece, but I think they should coordinate with the company, because I received more emails from Wizz Air urging me to do everything online, to have a boarding pass on the phone etc. to reduce contacts.
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| New space, cafe shops and duty-free at Belgrade Airport |
The airport was not busy at the time. There were only a few flights to mostly charter and leisure destination, so passport control went pretty fast. Construction work at the airport is practically at every step. In addition to the new building being built in extension of Terminal 2 C gates, the A1-A4 gates are closed and as far as I could conclude a new floor is being added, right above them. I like how the space behind the passport control at T1 was upgraded, a very spacious part with very modern cafe shops, with a lot places to sit, and of course the Tesla Square. As I said, I may have higher expectations, but I really expected that in addition to the board, at Tesla Square would have some information about Tesla himself, or about his work, and since Tesla holds more than 300 patents, I think that there is a space for cooperation with Tesla Museum in Belgrade, for mutual benefit.
Boarding for this flight started at Terminal 1 gate A9. As I previously mentioned, construction work is in progress so it is quite normal and understandable to lose a certain level of comfort at the airport. However, the air conditioning literally does not exist in the lobby in front of the A8-10 gates. It was busy at the gate and I can say A9 gate is in a pretty bad shape. I personally used it last time about 20 years ago, on a, then, domestic flight to Tivat and nothing much has changed since then. When boarding began, literally all passengers rushed to the exit, rules for children or Wizz Air priority boarding were not respected and not to mention some epidemiological rules. My seat was in the back of the plane, so boarding was at the back door, so it was necessary to get off the gate onto the platform and walk up the stairs, and I liked it, because it reminded me of one boarding a JAT DC-9 via the tail stairs.
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| Chaotic boarding at Gate A9 at Belgrade Airport |
The plane was almost 2 years old, so I could say brand new, and was is in excellent condition. Like I said, this was my first flight on an A321, although I had flown on smaller family members, and I am really surprised by the number of seats and rows on the plane. The capacity of the aircraft is 230 passengers in 39 rows, which is equivalent to the number of passengers in economy class of some wide-body aircraft. Even the cabin crew member were sitting on the emergency exits on the right side of the aircraft, opposite the passengers in the next row, which was an unknown fact for me, until now.
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| Boarding Wizz Air A321 at Belgrade Airport |
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| Wizz Air Abu Dhabi A321neo |
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| New apron E at Belgrade Airport with Cargo Air B737-400F classic jet |
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| Construction work at Belgrade Airport |
On both flights I had the whole row to myself, so I may be a bit subjective, but the seat pitch was good, with enough legroom and the seats are very comfortable. Interestingly, the seatback is not possible to recline into any position. We took off on time, and both flights were very pleasant. There were 159 passangers on the flight to Heraklion ( I did not count, I asked), and return flight had more passengers, I would say with load factor of 80%, were most of the passengers were Wizz Air priority. Most of the passengers were Serbian citizens, but there were also a few passengers from Greece.
On board service consists of the possibility to buy hot and cold beverages, sandwiches and soup. For some reason a lot of passengers chose the soup. It was possible to pay in euros, Serbian dinars, and with cards, but only if you had offline mode available. After on board service, crew offered perfumes, cosmetics and some other products, including Wizz Air gifts. The crew was professional, and also made several announcements for people to wear their masks constantly and properly, over the mouth and nose. There were a couple of passengers who didn't quite realise it, but the crew didn't take any action either.
We landed some 15 minutes before schedule, and since Heraklion International Airport ‘Nikos Kazantzakis’ was pretty empty at the time, which is not common in June as it is the country's second busiest airport after Athens, the passport control went pretty fast and smooth. Police offices were checking for PLF document and also for proof of vaccination or negative PCR test.
Some 10 days before my return, Wizz Air made a scheduling change and brought forward my flight by about two and a half hours. OK, it was not a big deal, but in this circumstances when there are limited options for connecting flights, I have found this very stressful especially because I have waited the whole day to find out what are the changes in booking.
In contrast to the day of arrival, this time Heraklion Airport was very busy, I would say close to pre pandemic levels. Part of the airport, the departure area was modernised back in 2018, with very large and modern duty-free shop, and also with a great overview of the parking position and runway. In some parts, the airport was very hot and boarding was pretty exhausting. This time not because of the small gate and lack of rules, but because ground staff was checking if all cabin luggage are according to Wizz Air standards.
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| Regional Greek carrier Sky Express introduced narrow-body jets and is expanding over Europe |
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| Interesting and very creative idea by Heraklion Airport - Let the knowledge fly with you |
The flight was pleasant, and we arrived ahead of schedule in Belgrade, with a great sunset.
Overall, enjoyable experience with Wizz Air.
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