TRIP REPORT: Austrian, Belgrade - Sofia and back
Good morning and welcome to my trip report.
About ten days ago I traveled to Sofia to visit some friends. I left Belgrade on Thursday and returned on Sunday.
Logically I planned on flying with Air Serbia as they were the fastest connection between the two cities. The flight between BEG and SOF takes around 40 minutes on the ATR. Unfortunately, at that time JU's SOF was extremely unreliable. A lot of flights were late while several of them were rescheduled to 15.30 or even 16.30 instead of 13.20.
As I was not going to stay long in Sofia, I decided to look for an alternative and I found Austrian Airlines. I flew with them some months ago and I really disliked the experience. That said, since then circumstances have changed so I decided to give them another try.
In all honesty, OS' schedule was fantastic. I left Belgrade at 07.00 and was in Sofia by noon while the flight back left Sofia at 19.00 and I was in Belgrade at 23.30. Even though I had to go through Vienna, this schedule actually gave me more time in Sofia which was, anyway, what I was looking for.
Anyway... as almost anyone knows by now, BEG is a mess due to ongoing construction. However, the situation isn't that bad once you prepare yourself and once you realize that the old open air parkings are no longer available.
This made me especially happy. Coffee Cake is a high quality (Greek) bakery which has several shops here in Belgrade. This one will be located between gates A1 and A2.
Now... the fool working on our gate forgot to announce that boarding had begun. So at 06.30 I looked at the screen and it said 'Gate Open.' Literally a few minutes later I looked again and it said 'Gate Closed.' I rushed to gate A4a and immediately told her that they forgot to announce that boarding had started. Naturally, this being BEG staff she started arguing with me that I was wrong and that she did it. Luckily for me, her colleague was nice enough to actually admit that she forgot to do it. I screened my boarding pass and went into a relatively empty bus. Within the next 5-6 minutes, another 20 something passengers ran down the stairs and entered the bus.
We were parked at the most remote remote stand which I personally did not mind since the weather was nice.
As it was almost 07.00, many flights had already left by now, but it was nice to see BEG quite busy.
Air Serbia's B733 for the summer, it had arrived the day before. I believe it entered service later on that day.
TK A321 which was diverted to ZAG the night before due to bad weather in BEG. Later on they returned to BEG and I suppose crew hours expired so they had to spend the night.
On the right, you can see Air Montenegro's E95 which was leased by JU to operate their morning flight to Zurich.
This time around the crew actually came around and offered water free of charge. I decided to purchase Almdudler for €3.
Complimentary service
When we arrived Vienna was very quiet. I believe we were among the first arrivals that morning.
Our A320 has just arrived from LCA <3
Regional hegemons in all of their glory
Overflying Belgrade, Milos Veliki and the town of Obrenovac.
Unlike our flight from Belgrade which had a LF of around 40%, our flight to Sofia was performing much better, around 85%.
Kragujevac
Nis
SOF terminal 2.
This is what Sofia airport looks like inside. Terminal is absolutely horrible and it looks like a big bus station. Mind you, this is Terminal 2 which is supposed to be new and modern. Another thing which I found interesting is that arriving and departing passengers mix.
I honestly hope to God no airline plans on turning SOF into a transfer airport because they really do not have the facilities for such an adventure.
SOF does have a metro station and a ticket to downtown will cost you €0.80.
Sunday had arrived and it was time to head back home. As I was getting ready to leave my hotel, I decided to check the status of JU's flight. Today's flight was supposed to be operated by the 32 years old YU-ALP which left BEG right on time.
Then somewhere around Nis something happened and it returned to Belgrade.
SOF was cancelled that day and I supposed passengers were rebooked on their Monday flight which was leaving Sofia at 05.00 in the morning.
As the Polish saying goes: not my circus, not my monkeys.
My ride for today was at the gate. From what I remember LF was around 75%.
It was an A320 with sharklets and the new interior. I found the seats to be much more comfortable than the older ones.
There is also a USB port so you can recharge your device while using it.
After a bumpy take off, we flew north towards eastern Serbia then straight to Belgrade, entered Croatia, headed over Lake Balaton to Vienna. Flight time was around one hour and ten minutes. Flight was rather uneventful.
Our flight to BEG was onboard this E95 which they baptized Prague. It arrived some 15 minutes late from HAJ but they managed to turn it around in around 40 minutes and we left VIE with a minimal delay.
This flight was rather successful as it had 4 people in business class and around 95% in economy. Interestingly enough, on our flight there were quite a few Israeli passengers (3/4 passengers in business were speaking Hebrew) and I noticed around 10 or so boarding passes issued by SN.
My journey to Sofia ended where it began, at the most remote remote stand.
Deplaning took a bit longer as they were manually placing the stairs. After some 7-8 minutes they succeeded and we started coming out. There were two buses waiting for us and they took us to the terminal building.
We were taken to Gate A4 from where we took the stairs all the way up. I can't imagine this was fun for older passengers who had hand luggage. Anyway, once we were inside the terminal we were greeted by a horde of gasterbajters which was coming out of what seemed like a full A321 from Vaxjo. Air Serbia's Oslo flight had arrived at about the same time so the corridor started filling up. Passport control was packed and I expected the worst.
Luckily for me, all passport control booths were working so I was out of the terminal building really fast. I looked at my watch and it took me 15 minutes from deplaining to leaving the terminal building. This is impressive and it goes to show that the new set up at BEG is efficient and works. I guess people hate it because of all the walking which gives you the impression of a journey that never ends.
As far as Austrian Airlines go, after my disastrous experience the last time, this time around I actually enjoyed it much more. The mask mandate was suspended both for passengers and the crew. Flight attendants were much more pleasant, they were smiling and actually chattend and laughed with passengers. I know they get a lot of hate for their uniforms but I personally don't mind them. Their crew wears them nicely and they look tidy.
That said, the best thing about them is their timetable and a high number of frequencies they operate. This gives their passengers a lot of flexibility when booking their flights.
I don't think buy on board will stay and that at some point they will do what BA did and bring back some sort of free service, at least drinks and a snack. Their Melangerie menu is not the best, there aren't that many options to choose from and prices are quite high. Their app is useless and this time around I didn't even bother opening it.
Hope you enjoyed my trip report!
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