TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Belgrade - Brussels in business
TRIP REPORT
This Thursday I flew from Belgrade to Brussels with Air Serbia. I purchased a business class ticket as it was just a couple of thousand dinars more than the economy fare with luggage, so I thought why not.
Following check-in, I headed to the new centralised security area. The process is very quick. There are clearly marked lanes for business and economy class passengers. The new security machines do not require you to take out laptops, or take off watches, belts etc. The trays are automated, and several people can place their bags at the same time. So, the screening is much quicker than before.
After passing passport control, I walked around the new area of the terminal. It was interesting seeing Belgrade Airport staff now using scooters to get to the gates.
After having a walk, I headed to the Air Serbia lounge, which was busy since it had a lot of flights that afternoon, although most of the passengers inside the lounge seemed to be Russian. When I got seated, one of the staff came over with the menu and took the drinks order. I only had something to drink and then headed to the gate at the designated boarding time.
The gate for the flight was A3 and they have started taking down the glass walls between the gate area and the rest of the terminal that separated arriving and departing passengers. Despite the aircraft being ready, boarding didn’t start until the designated departure time. As I looked outside, I was surprised to see how little luggage there was on the flight as one single cart was enough. My guess is most people purchased the fare without luggage. I then looked around the gate and saw that most people brought their roller suitcases with them.
Finally, just after 6PM, when we were supposed to have departed, we started boarding. Business class passengers were invited first. There was a total of four passengers in business out of a total of eight seats. For economy I would say around a 100 passengers. With exception to myself, all were foreigners in business class. There seemed to generally be many foreigners on this flight, mostly men in suits. The crew in the front consisted of the purser, who was older and from the Jat era, as well as a young crew member. Both were very friendly and professional. Boarding was completed relatively quickly with the pilot coming over the PA to apologise for the delay, noting that they were waiting to get approval from air traffic authorities in Belgium, which was the reason for not being able to depart on time.
Prior to departure, the crew came around and issued menus. It consisted of three main meal choices. Considering the flight time of just a bit over two hours, I think the options are decent. The crew also offered newspapers and after a while came back to get everyone’s food and beverage order.
I also took a few photos also of the meal choices for the return to Belgrade.
We pushed back around twenty minutes behind the departure time at which point the crew performed the safety demonstration. It is done manually by the crew members although the instructions are recorded.
Shortly after departure, the crew came around and distributed the meals. It tasted good but they could perhaps work a bit on the presentation. Drinks were served at the same time.
As we reached cruising altitude the captain came over the speaker and gave us detailed information of the cities we would fly over and other flight information. He once again apologised for the delay. I have to note again that both crew members in business were really friendly. They offered drink refills several times during the flight and chatted with passengers as well. The passenger in front of me, who was Belgian, knew some Serbian so the older cabin crew started talking to her about how she learned Serbian. The younger crew member saw the book I was reading and started talking to me about it. Overall, they were quite nice.
The trays were cleared quickly after everyone finished their meals and we were offered tea and coffee as well local newspapers.
The seats are the regular economy class seats with the blocked middle seat. Each of them contained the Air Serbia magazine, as well as the Elevate Deli and Bar menu, which is used by economy passengers. As I could hear from all the munching behind me, it seems passengers were given the complimentary potato chips on this flight.
As we started our descent, the captain came again over the speaker to give us the latest landing information. He apologised for the delay for a third time and soon enough we touched down in Brussels. Due to strong headwind, we didn’t make up the delay during the flight but were late just 20 minutes overall. The taxi was short, and we parked at the air bridge. Within several minutes I reached the baggage claim area as the airport was deserted and there was no one at passport control. Overall, it was a nice flight with Air Serbia.
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