TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Belgrade - Brussels

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Written by Miroslav Al. Mešanović

Belgrade to Brussels onboard Air Serbia JU304 (July 26, 2019)

Air Serbia flies to Brussels four times a week (morning flights on Mondays and Wednesdays and evening flights on Fridays and Sundays). Last month when Brussels had shown up on Web Specials Sale, I decided to buy the Economy Light fare for 119 EUR and spend a weekend in Brussels. Flight times are ideal and there is no need to take a day off from work since Air Serbia’s JU304 departs Belgrade at 17:40, while JU305 departs Brussels at 20:20. This time I bought my ticket via my mobile phone, and I must say that Air Serbia website is totally fine on Android OS phone. I do hope they will roll out a dedicated Application soon.

Booking process

My city break started at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) around 2 hours before scheduled departure to Brussels. Here is the departures’ monitor showing flights due to depart on Friday afternoon. The flight to Brussels was the last flight shown at the time.

I usually show up at check-in / baggage drop-off counters to have my carry-on baggage checked if it complies with the carrier's standards and to have my boarding pass printed (I am avid collector of industry standard boarding cards unlike print at home A4 pages). There was no queue at the Air Serbia check-in counters at Terminal 2; I was done in less than 5 minutes. The ground handling agent had a very friendly attitude - smiling, noting that he will enter the miles for my flight into Etihad Guest (seems he did not see the fare – I get nil when flying Economy Light) and also made a comment that we are both Leos (if one takes astrology seriously).

Customs and Passport Control were done swiftly and I was on my way to Belgrade Airport’s Lounge - Business Club operated by Dufry. I am a regular at this lounge thanks to one of the several available credit card schemes in Serbia. Business Club is a good lounge. The major disadvantage from my point of view is that there is no view from it at all. Other than that, there is a decent offer of warm food (this time there was minestrone soup, pasta with carbonara sauce and risotto). Cold cuts are available 24/7 and for lunch, there was an assortment of sweets. The news at the buffet is that Dufry switched its wine supplier - now they offer wines from Aleksic Winery from Southern Serbia (these wines are also available in the Elevate Deli & Bar offer). Interesting to note, one of Air Serbia’s Captains dropped by for a quick meal.

The first sign that something was wrong came at 15:48 when the Check My Trip application informed me: “Your flight has changes - estimated departure 18:10”. I took a quick glance at the departure boards in the lounge; these were stating that JU304 is “on-time”. Soon came the first announcement: “Air Serbia announces departure destination Brussels, gate C2”. No worries, Business club is by the gate A4, which is no more than 3-4 minutes away from gate C2. Besides, I tend to arrive at the gate in Belgrade no more than 35 minutes before the stated departure time (as there is really not much to do at the gates). 40 minutes before the planned departure, so at 16:35, came an announcement - Final Call for Air Serbia flight JU304 to Brussels, gate C2.

Delays JU304

Here is the photograph of my bird of the day - Airbus A319 YU-APC named after tennis player Novak Djokovic.

After arriving at the gate, I could see that the plane assigned for today’s flight was deboarding, which was not a good sign in terms of departing Belgrade on time. At 17:10 we were still stuck at the gate, no announcements, no information, however, a couple of passengers were called to the counter. The captain and cabin crew went to board the plane. My application sounded again, this time - estimated departure 18:20. Finally at 17:25 a recorded announcement calling passengers to board the plane was played.

At 17:40, Captain Banda addressed the passengers and stated that the earliest gate departure time would be 18:20. Crew soon started to dispense complimentary glasses of fresh water to all the passengers. Plane was still at gate C2, but now disconnected from the air bridge.

JU304 seat map

Finally, at 18:45 we started to pushback and then taxi towards runway 30. As we were approaching the runway, TAROM’s ATR-42 landed from Bucharest - Otopeni. We were up in the air at 18:55.

Before going high above the clouds, I was able to take these photographs of the Sava and Drina rivers. Flight path was rather strange for this route, since the plane flew over Croatia, Slovenia, Italy then Germany and finally into Belgian airspace.

As soon as the captain had turned off the fasten your seatbelt sign, cabin crew started the complimentary service which got upgraded (Air Serbia went out with the announcement of complimentary service upgrade several days after my trip). What a surprise to see a package of Cacak Chips!

Flight was uneventful. Airbus A319 touched ground at Zaventem at 20:53 (scheduled arrival 19:35). The fastest and easiest way to downtown is one of the many trains from the airport. Worth noting is that train tickets bought online for trip Friday-Sunday include a 50% discount (at least return tickets).

Belgium in sight, Liege Airport

Final approach

First neighbour at the gate - ANA

Zavrentem train station

Brussels is really an interesting city to visit. Apart from Manneken Piss, Grote Markt and Atomium, be sure to visit The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, St. Katerijn quarter, and so on. My personal pick is the Royal Museum of Central Africa located in the suburb of Tervuren, which was closed for ages due to massive refurbishment.

Smurfs are omnipresent

So are Brussels waffles

Crocodile Room - the only unchanged room at the Afrika Museum

Afrika Museum

Brussels to Belgrade onboard Air Serbia JU305 (July 28, 2019)

My trip back home to Belgrade started at Brussels Central Train Station, the place where all the trains to the airport get packed with so many passengers. The ride to Zaventem Airport takes around 15 minutes. The train station is located directly below the terminal, so it is very easy to find your way either to arrivals or departures. Flight JU305 to Belgrade was scheduled for 20:20, and I arrived at the departures hall at 18:40 and to my shock, there was a queue in front of the Air Serbia counters.

Unfortunately, flight JU304 was again delayed from Belgrade (departed at 18:13). At this point, I must give all the praise to Air Serbia’s Station manager who seems to be a very hard working person. At the time of my arrival to the counters, he was surveying everything and he approached passengers with babies and children and redirected them to the Business counter. Since the queue was really long and I had only carry-on baggage I went to the Manager to inquire about the flight delay and the possibility to have my documents checked at the gate. He told me – no problem, my colleagues would take care of you at the gate (check identity and print out the standard boarding pass). You may proceed to the security control with a mobile boarding pass that you already possess. To check the status of the plane from Belgrade, he used the tool that all of us aviation enthusiasts use FlightRadar24. The plane from Belgrade was to arrive at around 20:20 but the manager informed me - I am doing all I can to shorten the plane’s turnaround time in Brussels and have you all sent to Belgrade as soon as possible.

Check My Trip informed me that the estimated departure would be 20:55.

Zaventem is a nice airport, at least on a Sunday afternoon. Security check took less than 10 minutes and the same goes for passport control. A traveller tip - once you clear immigration, there are bottles of water provided by the airport. Suggested donation is 1 EUR per bottle, which is of course much better than the usual duty free price and all the money goes to charity.

I went to the Diamond Lounge located on level 3 (one level above the departure gates). The lounge is a bit run down when it comes to furniture, but it provides a decent choice of beverages, some cold cuts and a couple of hot meals (mostly Middle Eastern and Asian on that Sunday evening). Front Desk staff were extremely helpful. One of the good things at the Diamond (Non-Schengen) Lounge is the airside view and it allowed me to spot Air Serbia’s Airbus 320 (YU-APH) taxiing towards the gate at 20:05. The departure board stated that boarding to Belgrade would commence at 20:35 at gate B10.

Diamond Lounge

JU305 in sight from the lounge

Brussels Airport has an open-gates system, so there were no additional checks in front of the gate nor are the gates physically separated. I went to the counter, had the identity check and asked for my boarding pass. The professional Station Manager was there, doing phone calls and assisting if necessary. All done. People were already getting nervous and most of them were already standing ready to board. At least 1/3 of the passengers seemed to be foreigners. Boarding commenced at 20:29. Boarding was completed at 20:50. The A320 was 4/5 full. Captain Slobodan Lalovic addressed us before takeoff to inform that the flight would take 1h 50 minutes and that the weather on route was fair. We took off at 21:03.

Service started some 20 minutes later. As on my previous flight, complimentary service consisted of Cacanski chips and a small bottle of water. Interesting to note - Elevate Deli & Bar had an extremely limited choice; the crew was making jokes with the passengers while offering the products. There were 4 sandwiches on this flight and all were sold by the time the crew reached row 5. Orasnica sweet was not available at all. Captain Lalovic addressed us once again to give the usual information about the route, altitude and the outside temperature. Our route took us over Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Lake Balaton and Sombor. YU-APH touched tarmac at Belgrade at 22:54 Passengers awaiting their flight to Beirut were already at the gate when we disembarked.

Overall, an expected service quality. I generally prefer flying Air Serbia. I am sorry to see so many delays during this summer season but after such a huge expansion and almost no new aircraft added, I am afraid it was inevitable.

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