TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Ljubljana - Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

Flight JU195 from Ljubljana to Belgrade departs at 20:50 with the ATR72-600 being used on my recent flight. I arrived at the airport way too early, at 18.30, and check-in for the Belgrade flight was yet to open (it opened two hours before departure and I had luggage). At the same time, check-in was taking place for Turkish Airlines’ flight to Istanbul and the check-in desk for easyJet’s London flight was about to open. The new terminal in Ljubljana is minimalistic but modern. I found it interesting that a tour group was assembling at the entrance of the terminal and I guessed they were flying with Turkish to some exotic destination. To my surprise they were all flying to London with easyJet (there was even a tour guide going with them) and the tour group’s age structure was varied from younger to older passengers. The tour group was Slovenian not British.

Check in for my flight opened at 18:50 and a line had already formed in front. Standing in the middle of the line, it was obvious that there were a lot of transfer passengers. There was a Russian family in front of me, and behind me there were two ladies transferring to Niš as they were trying to work out if they had to pick up their luggage upon arrival in Belgrade.

Security procedures in Ljubljana were swift as there were not too many people. Following that you enter the duty free/café area which was packed as the Turkish Airlines flight was delayed and the easyJet flight was obviously also full. There was nowhere to sit as all the tables and chairs were taken up. I noticed a door for the business class lounge and a lady sitting in front at a desk, so I asked if it was possible to purchase access. It was and it cost 30 euros to enter. I decided to go for it considering there was no where to sit anyway, and I had time to kill. Bizarrely you have to go to the nearby café to buy access to the lounge, where there was a kilometre-long line at the counter as it is self-service. It’s surprising you can’t just buy it at the desk in front of the lounge where the lady is sitting.

The lounge is TINY and the photo below is more or less the size of the entire lounge. But despite that it has a very decent selection of savoury food and sweets, as well as drinks. There are a lot of power ports and plugs and also an area with lounge chairs. The best feature of the lounge is the balcony overlooking part of the apron and runway.

Just before boarding started, I left the lounge and cleared passport control. As the flight was operated by the ATR72, it was parked in front of the terminal and we walked up to it. An older JAT-era female purser and a younger male cabin crew were working on the flight. They were both welcoming and polite. The flight was rather full with a few empty seats here and there. In front and next to me was a Greek family, who, I assume, were connecting to Thessaloniki as they went down the transfer exit when we arrived in Belgrade. As noted, the crew was nice. The male crew member was doing his utmost to try and entertain a child who was scared of flying. I could overhear this since he mentioned it to the purser (I was seated in the second last row of the plane).

The flight was uneventful and comprised of the usual service - bottle of water and two biscuits. BOB was also offered. The flight was very turbulent throughout. An interesting feature I noticed on this ATR is that the seats do not have recline, although it is for the best, in my opinion, on such a small plane. I remember the old Air Serbia ATRs have reclining seats and it is not pleasant when someone chooses to put there seat back. As we started our descent, the purser gave special instructions for passengers continuing to Niš - that they have to pick up their luggage and drop it off before their flight.

We arrived in Belgrade where there was a torrential downpour and we taxied to the remote B stand across the terminal building. Then we waited for 15 minutes. Of course everyone jumped as soon as we parked (even though the captain didn’t turn off the seat belt sign) and the purser than informed everyone to sit down. The door of the plane was opened, ground staff had started unloading luggage, the bus also came but no one could leave the plane. I heard the purser say that she was waiting for the flight supervisor to show up. 15 minutes later the flight supervisor showed up saying how he was waiting under the wing to be called up the entire time. The purser was visibly annoyed with him and she apologised when she informed passengers that we can disembark. We finally disembarked and were bussed to the terminal, where you have to go up to the arrivals level, then down to the passport level. I noticed that the flooring that had been taken off a few months ago near the passport control area has been replaced.

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