First flight: BEG-FCO JU530 4th August 2023
On the 4th August I took a flight from Belgrade to Rome. The flight was operated by Marathon Airlines on their E195 aircraft, featuring the full Air Serbia livery.
Since the flight was scheduled to depart at 06.45h, I arrived at the airport at around 04.15h. There was already a queue at the check in counters, so the total waiting time to check in was around 45 minutes. After that, I headed to passport control and the security checkpoint and expected to spend the same amount of time there, but, to my relief, I passed both in 10 minutes.
I went to Coffee Cake bar and paid 1160 dinars (around 10 euros) for 2 hazelnut flavoured iced coffees. I spent the rest of the time there until boarding commenced.
Boarding started 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time, and I got seated in my seat 19A. About 6.30h the crew announced that we are waiting for some passengers from the Moscow flight and that the departure time has been moved by 20 minutes, but our real departure time was 7.30.
From that point everything was very fast. Quickly after take off the seatbelt sign was turned off and service started. It consists of Air Serbia branded water and 2 noblice cookies.
We touched down with around a 20-minute delay and then spent more than an hour at passport control at FCO. It was a total mess, some American tourists went to the wrong counter, so they needed to pass by all the people that waited there, and then go to US/CA/EU control. My baggage was already delivered by the time I arrived at the belt.
Second flight: FCO-BEG JU535 20th August 2023
Since this whole trip was organised by a travel agency, I had a shuttle to the airport and arrived at FCO around 2 and half hours before departure. Check in wasn't open yet but a guide from the agency went somewhere to see what's happening, and they told him that the desk opened at 19.00. After check-in, I went to the security check, which I passed in 2 minutes, so I thought that I would pass through passport control quickly as well. That was really wishful thinking. Of about 30-40 checkpoints only 2 were open! So, I waited there for 1 and a half hours. After that I rushed through duty free and some fancy stores.
The gate for our flight wasn't announced yet so I had time to buy some food, which was cheaper than at BEG. 2 crepes were 10 euros. As I finished at the cafe, the gate was announced, E51, that looked a lot like the old A10/A9 gates at BEG.
Boarding started on time, and we departed 30 minutes later. The complimentary service started soon after, noblice and water. I later bought apple juice for 300 dinars. We landed about 15 min later.
Even though there were a lot of people at passport control at BEG I passed it in 5 minutes and afterwards waited another 5 minutes for my baggage to show up.
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From an organisational point of view FCO is a mess. No matter how much earlier JU plane lands it alwys ends up delayed.
ReplyDeleteHow was the Embraer cabin? Was it comfy?
When it comes to legroom it was ok, and seat is a little bit more comfortable than the one on A319. But there is a catch, I am only 175cm high
DeleteI have the exact oposite opinion, ive always had good experiences at FCO since 2015 at least. Specifically when it comes to JU, i found their planes were usually the ones being late on arrival.
DeleteAs for the seats, based off of my experience, if youre over 185cm ASL regular seats are not for you
And if you are over 185, how do you fit in Ryanair, Iberia Express and many others. I am 195 and I never had a problem to fit in my legs in AirSerbia, but if you say so, and if it makes you happy to troll on AirSerbia, let it be.
DeleteSame here . I am 190 and no issues with JU. Huge issues with Wizz and easyJet .
DeleteTnx for the report, it was nice reading it.
ReplyDeleteNice report, sad that the Sharklets is not fully covered
ReplyDeleteThank you for well written report. I was flying to FCO last Thursday morning (JU530) and the plane was parked at the parking position 805, so we had to be transported by bus to the ground level of the terminal buidling. Was this also the case with your flight? From my experience (4 flights since 2013 to FCO), the ground floor passport control is always a mess.
ReplyDeleteWe parked at the gate with jet bridge on the end of new part of terminal.
DeleteThats quite unusal, ASL usually parks at the satelite concourse or the stands at the "A9 and A10 resembling" gates at FCO
Delete"1160 dinars (around 10 euros) for 2 hazelnut flavoured iced coffees"
ReplyDelete😲😲😲
Maybe that was my fault, I ordered medium size 🤣
DeletePrices at airport for drinks, sandwiches, etc. are completely crazy.
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DeletePrices are related to crazy cost of renting retail spaces at airports
DeleteAnyone know what's going on with the coffee shops by check-in? I am surprised they are still not open.
ReplyDeleteI am flying to FCO and CIA frequently but only with Wizz. What was load factor on this flight?
ReplyDeleteJu530 was completely full. Ju535 wasn't completely full but overall load factor was around 80%
DeleteNice concise report.
ReplyDeleteHow did you manage to take foto of cockpit?
You can ask for it
DeleteIs not cockpit door always closed?
DeleteWhile we were waiting for those people from Moscow, I asked crew, and they allowed me to enter and take some photos.
DeleteNice
DeleteAco svaka cast, bio sam pre par godina. Roma fantasticna. Planiram opet da idem.
ReplyDelete