TRIP REPORT: Wizz Air, Belgrade - Baden Baden

TRIP REPORT

Written by Veljko Marinković

Flight: W6 4109/4110, Belgrade - Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden

Aircraft: Airbus A321-200, HA-LXM/LXV

Age: 5 years

In July I flew with Wizz Air from Belgrade to Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) airport in Germany. Watching the current situation in aviation, a lot of canceled flights, and poor on-time Wizz Air performance I was stressed about the upcoming trip, but somehow both of my flights were on time, and we even arrived at our destinations ahead of schedule. I was traveling only with a backpack, the lowest possible fare, where the return ticket cost close to 40 euros. What surprised me was that the standard window/aisle seat price was 2.000 rsd (close to 18 euros) per flight, while the standard middle seat was 100 rsd cheaper. I know that these services are a source of extra income for low cost carriers, but Wizz Air also charges seats with extra legroom (emergency exit seats) 4.000 rsd per flight. On my previous flight with Wizz, last year to Heraklion, these fares were a lot cheaper, between 750 and 950 rsd (6 and 8 euros), depending on the time when booking the seats, so I do not know what is influencing those fares: destination, ticket fares, the structure of the passengers or something else.

Although I had already checked-in online, I did not get my boarding card, so I had to arrive at Belgrade Airport some two and half hours earlier, to get a printed boarding card at the check-in desk. Luckily, all check-in, security, and passport procedures were fast and completed in a couple of minutes. The biggest change since my last visit to the airport, in June, was that gate C3 became Air Serbia’s designated gate for flights to New York, which differ from other gates in the sense that it is not an open space and that there is an additional security check. My flight boarded at gate A4, boarding, as usual, was pretty chaotic. Only one airport officer was working, he was giving his best, but the lack of air conditioning intensified the mess. The part of the airport after gate A4 is currently being overhauled.

There were 178 passengers on board Airbus A321 (LF 77%), which was in pretty good condition and the legroom was fair enough for the flight time of less than two hours. The crew was very friendly and relaxed. On-board service included paid items like water (2,5 euros), sandwiches with Coca-Cola and peanuts (9,5 euros), noodle soup, etc. After onboard service crew offered perfumes, cosmetics, and some other products. Like I said, we arrived some 20 minutes ahead of schedule, just behind the Ryanair flight from Zagreb, so there was a big queue at passport control, and considering that the German border police officers were more than detailed, I spent close to two hours in the queue, so in total, almost 5 hours at the airport that day. Airports are becoming the bottleneck of today’s aviation.

Airport Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden is a small airport next to the French border, mainly used by low cost carriers flying from EX-YU and the Balkans, and also has flights to leisure destinations. It is well connected with bus lines to the closest railway stations where it is possible to catch city and regional trains. Since German Railway introduced this summer 9 euro fare per month for all public transportation and regional trains in terms of savings and pollution reduction, this airport can be a good starting point to visit Germany. It also reminds me a lot of Tivat Airport since you walk to the plane from the terminal building and the terminal space and service are pretty similar to Tivat’s. Interestingly, next to the terminal building there is some spotting area, or better to say spotting hill, from where you can watch all airport operations.

On the way back I got a mobile boarding pass without any problem, but only a couple of us were with carry-on bags in a travel light fare and most of the passengers had check-in luggage. Boarding was much better organized and faster than in Belgrade, but the major problem occurred during security control, where we were required to separate all liquids into a transparent bag and take them out of the luggage. Passengers from my flight were not the type of passengers that had that type of luggage, but at the same time, the Ryanair flight was boarding to Zadar, so people were passing the same bag back and back, so a big queue was created. After passport control, there is a duty-free shop, but I would not call it like that, because some of the shelves were almost empty.

The return flight had 222 passengers on board, which means only eight empty seats, with a load factor of 97%. Most of the passengers were Serbian citizens living in Germany, but I have seen a couple of Germans going for a city break to Belgrade. The flight was pretty much the same in terms of service, crew, and in-flight service.

I can say that I am generally satisfied with Wizz Air’s service, considering that the flights were on time and the ticket was low cost.

During my stay in Germany, I got the chance to visit Technick Museum Speyer& Sinsheim, or better to call it, avgeek haven, where it is possible to see and enter planes like Air France Concorde, Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-144, Lufthansa Boeing 747-200, Antonov An-22, DC-3, Dassault Mercure 100 (first time to here, Airbus A320 predecessor) and many others. Considering that I could write several reports on this subject, I will stop now, and share a couple of images.