TRIP REPORT: Norwegian, Oslo - Pristina

TRIP REPORT

Written by Miran

25.05.2022

OSL-PRN (LN-ENP)

ETD: 06:20 LT (06:35 ATD)

ETA: 09:45 LT (09:41 ATA)

Even though Pristina has been the second busiest airport in Ex-Yu, there have still not been any trip reports to or from this airport. So, I thought to break this pattern.

Good (early) morning! Today’s flight is operating from Oslo to Pristina. The flight has ETD at 06:20 local time from Oslo, which is not preferable for a person who doesen’t like early mornings (like me). I woke up at 03:45, got ready in 15 min. Got a ride to the airport, arrived at approximately 04:45. So I was at the airport 1.5 hour prior ETD. I did the check-in online, so I went straight through the security control, with only cabin luggage.

Oslo Gardermoen is the main airport, which is roughly 50 km from the city centre. A pretty busy airport, but the security control went smooth. Also, we had to go through passport control, two separate lanes, one manned, another one self-service (EU/EEA).

Came to the gate approximately an hour prior departure. A lot of people were waiting to board the plane. I got to see the brand new expansion of the non-schengen area of the terminal. Speechless, every detail with elements of Scandinavian design.

I also got to see one of Norse Atlantic's B787, a new low cost transatlantic airline, which is going to start operations from mid-June. (in the background)

After boarding, I'd say that around 95% of the seats were taken, crowded, mainly Albanian diaspora. Boarding completed 06:25, and we got an announcement over the speaker that if we don’t take our seats on time, we may lose our takeoff slot, and may get delayed up to 1.5 hour. This helped get people onto their seats!

Takeoff from RWY 19L. Wind 160° 10kts. Temperature 10°C. Smooth take off. Expected some headwind the first hour, then mainly crosswind the rest of the flight.

My personal experience with Norwegian is that they got the best legroom among low cost companies. The cabin crew were kind and welcoming even though they looked pretty sleepy.

Norwegian offers 15 minutes of free WiFi onboard with reduced speed (years ago they offered free WiFi for the whole flight duration). You can pay for either 1hr access or full-flight access, with optimised speed.

Flying over Hungary now while I'm writing this, turning right into Croatia, to avoid Serbian airspace due to disputes. The flight has been comfortable so far, beside lots of kids running down the aisle and screaming as if in a playground. I'm hearing people talking in Albanian, Serbian, Norwegian and English.

The plane did an interesting approach into Pristina, making some manoeuvres at low altitude with moderate turbulence. This was the cool part of the flight, especially for me!

Landed at 09:41 local time. While taxiing, an impatient woman did raise up to get out her cabin luggage from the overhead bin. Seriously. This is really embarrassing, and the crew started screaming over the speaker "Please sit down" multiple times.