TRIP REPORT: Brussels Airlines, Brussels - Ljubljana and back

TRIP REPORT

Written by Tominc Lenc

Most times, to go from Brussels (where I live), to Slovenia (where I have family), I use the car, which is about a 13 hour drive. But this time, since it is winter, I decided to travel by plane, because, usually, the weather isn’t that good in Austria in this season. I booked my flight two months in advance, and the price was around 200 euros for the round-trip, for one person.

So at 13:10 o’clock, I left home and I went to the railway station, Brussels-Luxembourg, which is 10 minutes walk from my home. At 13:22, the train departed from the station and at 13:41, I arrived at Brussels Airport. This day was scheduled to be one the busiest of the year due to the Christmas period.

I was given the possibility to put my luggage in the hold of the aircraft, but I decided to keep it on board, so I don’t have to wait for it at Ljubljana. Then, at 13:50, I proceeded to the security check, which wasn’t so overcrowded as I expected. Within 5 minutes, I completed the procedure. Before I went to the Duty Free shop, there was a free water refill shop, which was introduced over the last few months, and I found it really interesting, because it reduces the quantity of plastic used by every single traveller. So, after that, I proceeded to the Duty Free shop, and then, I decided to tour the airport a little bit, because I had plenty of time before my flight.

I saw a Qatar Airways B787, and many Brussels Airlines A319 and A320, including some with special liveries, such as Belgian Icons, Tomorrowland, and Belgian Red Devils & Red Flames, the latest was painted just a few months earlier.

After the airport visit, it was already time to board my aircraft, and it started on time.

The aircraft which operated the flight was almost 19 years old, registered OO-SSX. At 15:28, boarding was completed, and we pushed back at 15:30 from gate A54. Shortly after that, the safety demo was performed. The captain told us that we could expect a flight time of one hour and fifteen minutes, because the wind blew very strongly to the south.

At 15:38 we took off from Runway 25R at Brussels Int’l, and we headed trough the center of the capital, and after that, we disappeared into low clouds. Shortly after that, the flight crew came to offer us some snacks or drinks, which weren't free.

When we passed through Austria, we could enjoy the view of beautiful mountains.

We cruised at FL370, and at 16:52 we landed at Ljubljana International, 13 minutes ahead of schedule.

The landing was very rough, which I completely understand because of the poor weather conditions, such as winds and low visibility.

I was a little impressed by the new terminal interior because I haven't been inside of it since its reconstruction, it's quite nice and modern.

Outside the airport there were also many decorations, because of the festive season.

Then, I took the car to Maribor.

At an altitude of 1000 M, there was snow in the surroundings of Lovrenc na Pohorju.

For my inbound flight back to Brussels, my journey started at 11AM, when I took the train from Maribor to Ljubljana.

I had multiple opportunities to see a Lauda A320 in the air while I was in Maribor, as it was probably a training session for pilots.

The train ride to Ljubljana was quite long, it took 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is almost three times more than by car!

For me, this is really something that should be improved in Slovenia, because there could be a lot of demand if they introduced high speed railways, and it would also have a lower impact with the CO2 emissions, because a lot of people use car every day to reach Ljubljana or Maribor.

I arrived at Ljubljana Central Station at 14 o’clock, and shortly after I took a bus to Ljubljana Airport.

It took me 45 minutes to get to Brnik Airport.

I arrived 2 and a half hours earlier, because there is a bus every two hours to the airport, so I didn’t have a choice.

There was only one scheduled departure before my flight, and that was a FlyDubai B737 MAX 8.

When I arrived at the security check, there was literally no one.

I really like those automated boarding pass checks (there was an article on EX-YU Aviation News, so I decided to take a picture of them), because it goes much faster than with people checking it, and within minutes I reached the Duty Free.

After the Duty Free, I saw quite a lot of cargo and scrapped planes.

There was also a Lufthansa E190 parked at a remote stand, and I already saw it when I arrived at Ljubljana five days before.

To kill some time, I decided to explore the airport, and I found some gates on the ground floor, and a spotting place on the second floor.

I was able to capture the 737MAX8 taking off and my Brussels Airlines flight landing.

We started boarding at 16:15 and we were given the safety briefing. At 16:34, we started our pushback.

Then, we took off at 16:42.

In flight, I captured some beautiful sunset photos, and again the Austrian mountains.

When the aircraft was airborne, I decided to look at their menu card.

The cruise was very smooth but there were severe turbulence when we made our approach to Brussels, although the landing was quite soft.

I saw the Red Devils& Red Flames livery again, and an Air Europa B737H plane.

We arrived 6 minutes earlier and I proceeded to the exit.

The airport was very busy and it took me 10 minutes to get outside.

Overall, I enjoyed both flights, because of the challenging weather and the other planes that I saw.

For me, Ljubljana Airport is very nice inside, but it’s very sad to see that it’s almost completely empty.

That’s why I hope that connectivity will be better in LJU with these new “talks” with Ryanair and W!ZZ.

I hope you enjoyed my trip report, and I’m looking forward to make more of them in the future.

PS: I’m sorry if there were some grammatical faults in this article, but I’m only 14 years old, and in Belgium, it’s the third language that you learn at school (after French and Dutch), but I did my best.

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