TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Belgrade - Istanbul - Belgrade
Good morning and welcome to my trip report!
Due to some work related obligations, I needed to go to Istanbul. These days there are a lot of options to choose from when flying between the two cities. Unfortunately, demand is much higher than supply meaning fares are extremely expensive. I looked at my options a month in advance.
Even though I had no intention of flying into SAW, I glanced at Pegasus' website to see what they were offering. Both legs were operated by their 239 seat A321neo. BEG-SAW was offered for around €120 while the return flight cost over €900! It's truly unfortunate that they are not allowed to expand their presence in BEG as there is obviously more than enough room for growth.
Anyway, I switched to the JU-TK cartel and their fares were more or less the same. Since I was flying a day before the meeting and was coming back the day after, I decided to book my flight with Air Serbia. Fare without luggage and with seat selection came out to be 40.000 RSD which is approximately €341 for this 01.20 flight.
JU802 - BEG-IST
Departure: 12.15/12.22
Arrival: 14.50/14.38
Load: 120/144 (83%)
A319 - YU-APK
Here is YU-APK, our ride for today. We were boarding from the relatively horrible looking C3 gate. I disliked it because unlike the newly constructed terminal, this one didn't really have the open space but was rather closed off with white walls all around it. I suppose they are keeping it like that as this is the area that will be, most likely, reconstructed once the new check-in area is completed. I did use this opportunity to visit the newly expanded terminal area and I found it very nice. It's practical and there is a lot of natural light which is something I really like.
Next to us was this ancient B734 that was being prepared to fly to Zurich. It's really unfortunate that JU scheduled it on BEG-ZRH when their competition uses state of the art planes like A220 and E2. I guess Air Serbia doesn't really care about these things. I just hope that for summer 2023, they will not be shopping around museums for additional capacity.
I was the first to board. When I entered the plane, the purser was nowhere to be found. A younger female cabin crew was writing something in a book and when I said hello she just looked at me and kept on writing. Ok, anyway, her bitchiness aside, the cabin looked ok and I found the seats to be comfortable enough for intra-European flying. As I was sitting in the back of the plane, I noticed a male cabin crew member was busy in the galley. For the first 20-30 passengers that boarded the flight, there was no one to greet them. A while later the purser showed up and the guy emerged from the back and business was as usual.
That said, I would like to use this opportunity to say that the purser on that flight was lovely (unlike her younger colleagues). She looked very tidy, gracious and kind towards passengers.
We would have left even earlier but we had to wait for luggage as there were quite a few transfers onboard. From what I could see there were around 40 bags that were brought later on. I guess 40 to 50 people onboard were connecting in BEG. From what I could notice, most passengers onboard were Serbs and it seemed as if they were going for holidays to Istanbul.
The day before my flight I checked what JU was charging for BEG-IST and the flight cost close to €200 (one way). I guess JU's revenue management would rather have 24 empty seats than to lower their fares a bit in order to stimulate demand on slower days (this was a Wednesday).
It was a short taxi to the runway and we were off.
Air Serbia complimentary service includes chips and a tiny bottle of water. I purchased a Coke for 300 RSD from their onboard menu. Flight was mostly uneventful and service was rather fast as there were barely any onboard sales.
Our flight path took us over the city of Istanbul so you could enjoy very nice sights. Here's one of the old IST airport.
As we taxied to our gate we ran into a familiar face! Before crossing the runway we had to let JU's IST-KVO flight take off. It was really nice to see them there.
Anyway, it took us roughly 20 minutes to reach our gate which wasn't that bad. I guess we arrived at a quieter time so all was good.
Anyway, this is the first part of the report. Below you can find my impressions from the return flight.
JU803 - IST-BEG
Departure: 15.40/16.15
Arrival: 16.20/16.32
Load: 147/144 (102%)
A319 - YU-APE
Word to the wise: no matter when your flight is out of IST, make sure you arrive at least 3 hours before take off. There is a lot of security at the airport which includes two sets of security checks as well as a passport check while you stand in line for the passport control. However, once you are through the airport is great. Lots of shops, lots of things to do. IST is truly a fantastic airport.
Another great thing is that you can see really nicely what's going on outside.
Our gate today was D1. It was crazy how full the flight was. There were 4 passengers in business class. In the back it was mostly Turks and it seemed like they were either coming for holidays or transfering to Europe.
I noticed there were quite a few Swedes and Germans waiting in the gate. This made sense as this flight took place last Friday and that afternoon there were quite a few departures to Western Europe. All in all, good for JU. However this shows that this flight could have been easily operated by an A320. #yu-apo
Btw ticket sales for this flight were closed roughly 10 days before the trip. This is yet another example that there isn't enough capacity on BEG-IST.
Lufthansa is really thriving in Istanbul. They operate double daily FRA-IST onboard their A320, they suspended MUC and their daughters axed VIE and ZRH flights. It's truly odd that people are not rushing to fly with them given their low fares and fantastic onboard product.
Here comes Air Serbia. Unfortunately, that day they were not as lucky as it took them forever to reach the gate.
Pulling into the gate. Gotta say that their livery looks truly fantastic.
It didn't take long before boarding started. Even though our flight arrived with a slight delay, we were ready to depart more or less on time. Unfortunately for us, we were stuck in the plane for 20 minutes waiting for the rush hour to pass so that we could be pushed back.
Photoshoot before leaving. By the way, this was our supervisor. The handling agent JU uses in IST is fantastic. They are all young, very professional and polite.
We taxied to the runway behind Aeroflot's B77W. We waited for the A321neo to CPH to take off, after which it was our turn. Take off was fantastic as it was very, very windy that day. Since we were heavy it took forever to take off after which we were literally blown away to the east by the winds. We climbed like a rocket after which turbulence stopped.
Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Air Serbia seems to have dropped those nasty Noblice and replaced them with Gricko - a snack I absolutely love. Unfortunately they still don't give you a wet tissue which you could use to wipe your hands after eating either Gricko or chips. JU should really work on this as I doubt it would be a big expense for them.
The crew on this flight was fantastic. Our purser was very professional and you could see that he knew what he was doing. Working with him were two young ladies who looked very presentable and were pleasant towards passengers.
We parked at gate C14 and our plane was being prepared for its next destination (BER). Next to us, pictured here, was YU-APC.
Once we went up (escalators worked) I could see nicely our A319 along with YU-APC and easyJet's A320neo taking off in the background.
The corridor that takes you to the passport control looked very nice and modern.
Ongoing construction
I noticed the new checkin area will feature some ethnic designs.
And then you see things like this. I honestly can't believe BEG management is this incompetent. It hasn't been a year since you opened this part of the terminal and we are already seeing things like these? Personally I find this unacceptable.
Anyway, fun doesn end there. I reached the passport control only to see that I was 55.787th person in line. Naturally, all passport control booths weren't open so the line moved at a glacial pace. On top of all this, easyJet A320 from Basel as well as Wizz Air flight from somewhere arrived so it got even worse. I waited some 40 minutes in line. When my turn came I noticed that there were even more people as more flights kept on arriving. The line actually extended all the way to the escalators.
To conclude this trip report, I would like to say that Air Serbia is just ok. Nothing special about them but they offer a fine, basic product. When it comes to their crew, well, here it's hit or miss. I suppose they are tired and overworked but as a paying customer I should not have to deal with that. This is something they need to address with their management. Their pricing seems to be odd as pointed out in the first part of this trip report. I noticed that this year JU was many things but cheap wasn't one of them. Hopefully this translates into them coming close to breaking-even. If they wish to charge this much then they should at least improve their complimentary service. Maybe bring back free coffee and tea. This is something that passengers would appreciate especially on morning flights.
This is where we say goodbye and I hope you enjoyed reading this trip report!
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