TRIP REPORT | INDEX
Written by Vladimir Kljajić
Written by Vladimir Kljajić
This is a short trip report of my flight from Belgrade to Frankfurt earlier this week. Lufthansa has two daily flights on this route, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I was flying on the second service on this occasion which was being operated by an almost ten year old Airbus A321 featuring the new blue livery.
For some reason, Lufthansa Group airlines now do check in procedures at the old Terminal 1 building, which does offer a ground level view of the tarmac.
After a quick check-in, I headed up to the T1 passport control. Since many people don't know that the terminal has a separate passport control from the much busier Terminal 2, I completed the process in seconds as there was no one else around.
The airport was quite busy at this time of day. There were also a lot of land surveyors walking around so my guess is that very soon there will be changes inside the departures area of the terminal. I took some shots.
The new smoking room seems nice and quite large with nice views of the runway. I'm not a smoker myself but having seen other smoking rooms around Europe, this looks very decent.
The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was, of course, late. I have flown with them around ten times in the past two years and not a single time was my flight on time. I noticed that the later your actual departure time, the greater the delay.
The A321 was full (photo above taken upon boarding) and the crew did apologise for the half an hour delay.
After we were airborne the usual Lufthansa service began consisting of a free sandwich and drink. The sandwich contained salami and some sour cream filling. The service was efficient and the crew, as usual, very relaxed. It was a mix of quite older and youngish crew. This aircraft was also Wi-Fi enabled but I did not use it.
Upon landing, the purser announced the departure gates for connecting passengers. I find this interesting so you can hear where people are heading off to. This time it was Helsinki, Madrid, Barcelona, Naples and Glasgow.
Overall, Lufthansa offers decent service for the cost of the fare and even above average food and beverages considering the number of airlines which have introduced buy-on-board and offer nothing other than water for free.
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Nice report, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI will have to get used to the new LH logo, not really liking it at all.
BEG Airport looks very clean and modern even before the concession. I hope Vinci maintain the same level.
LH are generally expanding not only in Serbia, but in the region as a whole.
I like Lufthansa but the whole 5 star airline award was such a scam.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, LH Group has been in Terminal 1 for over two years now. I think they moved in the moment that little area was renovated. In summer the check-in process can be a nightmare especially when you have several departures within two hours.
Nice report overall.
It is good to know how many transfer passengers Lufthansa carries. Half of those are destinations introduced by Air Serbia recently.
ReplyDeleteFull A321 to FRA in early March is great, not surprised they are adding third flight from MUC.
ReplyDeleteVladimir, First of all thank you for your report. I want to ask you a question: were the seats comfortable? When you look at one of your pictures you can see the empty seats have the shape of a bum and no cushioning?! Also the back of the seats...you can see the cross bars no cushioning again?! It looks like the seats were worn off and old? Am I right or is it an illusion?
ReplyDeleteSeats are generally uncomfortable, yes, however they are ok for flights up to two, two and a half hours. Flying from ATH or LCA to MUC/FRA can be a painful experience especially since there is almost no padding.
DeleteSeats were ok for this short flight but sitting in them for a long time would probably make them uncomfortable.
DeleteIn january I was flying on the same flight with A320neo, the strange thing is that there is no IFE system?!?
ReplyDelete"Since many people don't know that the terminal has a separate passport control from the much busier Terminal 2, I completed the process in seconds as there was no one else around."
ReplyDeleteThey have recently started diverting people away from that passport control if their flights are departing from gates C. I know, it's idiotic, but that's what's happening.
I am sad, because the Nikola Tesla name is no longer appearing :(
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteCyrillic smaller than latin even though in bold. Not really respectful from the French.
DeleteAirport looks great though.
Lufthansa is always late from Belgrade. Joke about time now describes LH. They are more expensive than Wizz on destinations to Germany. Wizz does not offer free water but the price difference is not worth that small sandwich and a cup of Cola.
ReplyDeleteI don't think LH and W6 are after the same passengers anyway.
DeleteLH is mostly after transfer passengers on routes to MUC and FRA. They have no competitors on transfers, W6 serves alternate airports and JU has no transfers at FRA. However trip report mentions airline that only offers water. Which one is that as it isn't W6/JU.
DeleteI think he meant that Wizz doesn't even offer a free cup of water, as in there is no service.
DeleteJU and LH have connections on either end, at their respective hubs. LH is also carrying a lot of German businessmen who are filling the front of the cabin so they do well.