I recently took a flight from Belgrade to Madrid with Air Serbia, which was operated by the Lithuanian airline GetJet Airlines. I used the Air Serbia mobile application to check in for this flight Unexpectedly, Air Serbia switched to a smaller A319 aircraft and postponed the departure time by five minutes one month prior to the flight's departure from Belgrade. During the check-in process, I discovered that the aircraft that was flying the route was an A320, with 31 rows, but in reality, the aircraft had 30 rows. Not sure what was happening here, and whether Air Serbia has an A320 with 31 rows in its fleet.
This time, I decided to drive to the airport and drop off my car at Tesla Airport parking because there was a 20% discount available for online ticket purchases. This made the four-day trip more affordable than taking a one-way taxi. I'm using this option for the second time, and I can only recommend it. Additionally, a free shuttle service to and from Terminal 2 departs every ten minutes around the clock. Since there wasn't much traffic when I got to the airport, I breezed through security and passport control. The new Duty-Free area has opened up after the security check area since my last visit to the airport in April. I have to admit, it looks nice and modern.
Boarding began right on time as indicated on the boarding pass. There were three business class passengers among the approximately 150 total on this flight. I'm not sure why boarding wasn't done in accordance with the rows of seats; it was disorganised. There was a mixture of Spanish, Russian, and Serb passengers. I observed that a particular proportion of the passengers on both flights were tourists from Spain visiting Belgrade. After boarding was completed we were informed by the captain that due to the ATC restrictions our flight would be delayed for 25 minutes.
A 19-year-old Airbus A320 registered as LY-GYM, which had previously been wet-leased to Azerbaijan Airlines, operated the flight. I have to admit that the cabin looked great. With an adequate seat pitch and extra back support, the seats were comfortable. I got to see the seat with some "accessories" in between the seats for the first time. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the distance between the seats is increased. On this flight, Air Serbia served a small water and tasteless sandwiches as part of their cabin service. The majority of the crew was Spanish, and they were all friendly and professional.
During the flight, an incident occurred, and as far as I understood, one of the passengers was smoking in the lavatory. I'm not sure if the smoke detector was triggered or what, but at one point, all the crew members started acting strange and looking for someone or something. When they found the suspected passenger, the interrogation started, but since the passenger was speaking only Spanish, I only managed to understand in that discussion that he was denying accusations. Subsequently, the crew searched for a cigarette, initially in the lavatory (it wasn’t there) and then directly from the passenger; nonetheless, because he persisted in his denial, he was eventually issued only a warning.
We landed at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport with a 20-minute delay and then taxied for close to 15 minutes, considering that the aircraft parked at the farthest and last possible gate at the airport. From that position, it took another 20-25 minutes to leave the airport.
A 20-minute walk didn't seem like a big deal after three hours on the plane, but I want to stress this because of the return journey and the fact that Air Serbia doesn't offer online check-in for flights departing from Madrid. I was surprised by this information, especially when I realised that there is no possibility for online check-in for any destination from Spain, especially for the high-frequency route from Barcelona. Although Air Serbia duly sent a reminder e-mail that it was check-in time for a destination for which it was not possible to check online, still I couldn't find any information about when the check-in counter at the airport opens. So I arrived 3 hours before the scheduled departure time. Interestingly, a certain number of passengers were already waiting in line, even though the counter opened 2 hours and 30 minutes before departure. Madrid Airport is huge, it has a lot of shops and cafes, very clean and spacious, but a bit outdated in some parts, especially in the check-in area. The only downside is that none of the cell phone charging sockets worked at T1.
Once more, ATC constraints were cited as the cause of the one-hour delay of this flight. LY-GYM was originally scheduled to operate this flight; however, LY-MAL had to take its place because of a longer delay from the previous flight. The LY-MAL is a far less comfortable jet, fully configured as low-cost, with less cozy Recaro seats that don’t recline. Having taken Wizz Air flights frequently, I can say that I am familiar with this kind of seating; that being said, I found it difficult to place my legs anywhere, whether it was because the middle seat or particular row was specially narrowed.
Three people were traveling in business class, and the load factor was approximately 80% (check-in agents told me the inbound flight was nearly full). The cabin service was the same as on the inbound flight, although this time refreshing towel was missing. The rest of the flight was uneventful. We were 45 minutes late landing at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade. The passport control process went very smoothly.
Overall, my flight with Air Serbia was OK, but I think that Air Serbia needs to standardize its service. Out of my last four flights, only one was operated with Air Serbia aircraft and crew, and three were operated by three different wet-leased airlines.
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
Those headreast ads are vile, they should either remove them or add an Air Serbia logo at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteThe headrest ads bring a lot of revenue in to the company to help keep fares low.
DeleteRyanair placing safety instructions right in your face is bad, this is nothing.
DeleteThank you for this trip report with so many details and fantastic pics. " with less cozy Recaro seats that don’t reclin" Is it the same situation and in the business class? Also I don't see a business class divider on these pic's, that curtain, does it exist at all?
ReplyDeleteSeats aren't reclining, either in business or in the economy, and there is no welcome drink, neither the crew is paying too much attention to business pax. They got only a meal and blocked the middle seat. On my last flight from LCA I was sitting in the third row, just behind business. Seat pitch was a disaster. Thankfully this aircraft left JU fleet and went directly to W6 and currently flying for Vueling. Hope to stay there
DeleteGetJet has Spanish crew???
ReplyDeleteTheir maintenance base is located in Madrid, I believe. The crews are most likely partially from there as well.
DeleteThank you for the report. I believe that there are 30, and not 31 rows of seats on the A320 (total: 180) because row 13 is usually skipped in the numbering. :)
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the Spaniard was actually smoking on the flight?
Quit odd for this 13 row
DeleteNothing really odd.. all spanish planes dont have row 13 and italians do not have row 13 and 17. Cheers
DeleteIt's quite a bit of a standard in aviation industry
DeleteYupp. But not in Serbian aviation, though: we are not that supersticious.
DeleteIn north America they skip the 13th floor as it is hard to sell....
DeleteNice report. Glad to see that Air Serbia doing so good at Madrid. Probably next summer we can expect daily flights. Which could be next destination in Spain, Alicante, Sevilla...
ReplyDeleteAlicante is close to Valencia. It would be more logical to increase Valencia to at least 4 flights per week.
DeleteLooks really cheap and low-cost with those AMS ads. What's next, Ryanair style posters on the overhead bins and embossing the safety card onto the seat back?
DeleteActually the safety card wouldn't be a bad idea.
Delete@Anon 09:50 Expect that Wizz Air will add Alicante in near future since it already flies from Bucharest and Budapest, and it is logical, if they sort their business. On the other side don't see any more possible destination for Air Serbia soon in Spain. They cover all for now
Deletethey didn't cover canary islands.Also Sevilla would be great, but I don't expect that to happen...Alicante is really close to Valencia, so quite pointless to add this route in addition to Valencia..I flew from Madrid to BEG 3-4 times since january, and the flight was always full...And always the same story with delay, we all borad the plane, with average delay of 30 min. in start, and than sit inside for min. 30 additional min..Taxing is always very ling, both ways, because Air Serbia in on terminal 1, the oldest terminal, and runway is much closer to the newest terminal 4, that serves all european flights, and it is located in the other valley..
DeleteLast 22 flights of Air Serbia flights ASL572 BEG-MAD from 11 march onward landed within 15 minutes or less which is considered on time. It is nowadays easy to check online as there is a flight history data base with all details in it.
DeleteThe trip report should be titled GetJet, Belgrade-Madrid.
ReplyDelete“Out of my last four flights, only one was operated with Air Serbia aircraft and crew, and three were operated by three different wet-leased airlines.”
ReplyDeleteAs a foreigner, I hated this when flying with Air Serbia. I like the airline, its logos, and its crew, and I was quite unhappy when they changed my flight to a totally white plane. I also paid for seats at the very front of the plane for me and my friend, but the plane was changed multiple times. As a result, my friend ended up sitting all the way at the back of a full 737-800, and we had a short layover in BEG. That was exactly why we booked the seats in the first place. I managed to change them back twice, but they changed the departing aircraft again on the day of departure.
Despite this, we did manage to catch the next flight due to the very friendly and patient staff at Belgrade airport.
We have two problems here. First was men spreading legs and we got crazy story about narrower seat, second was complaining about tasteless sandwich. Even Tresnja do not taste good high in clouds.
ReplyDeleteAbout a month ago I flew MAD-BEG and the LF was crazy high like 98%, return flight was little bit lower but stil above 90%
ReplyDeleteThis route has all the potential to be increased to 5pw if not even going daily next summer season
People complain about too little frequency on this flight since it started.
DeleteStill JU again and again doesnt want to increase.
They are a slow and lazy airline..
@anon 19:02
DeleteJU is anything but slow and lazy in it's reaction on market changes. There must be a good reason not to build up MAD at this point e.g. slots, capacity, crew shortages....
And don't forget that MAD is one of the longest rotations so there is a utilization issue also.
DeleteExcuses, excuses..
Delete> tasteless sandwiches
ReplyDeleteRecently was on a flight, where apparently crew ran out of chicken sandwiches, so everyone got vegetarian sandwich. I was disappointed, as pretty much everyone else. But in the end it turned out to be not so bad – it had tomato, cucumber, lettuce, corn, olives and some legume paste. Considering that both options are 80% bread, I would say veggie is more tasteful and less dry.
Probably would still choose chicken on the next flight.
Sledeći put letite sa Lufthanzom, nećete dobiti besplatan sendvič i nećete imati našta da se žalite.
ReplyDeleteWell done ASL PR!
DeleteNišta nije besplatno, sve je u cijenu karte.
DeleteSa Lufthansom je ništa uračunato u cenu karte.
DeleteSeats look cold as hell.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the problem with online check-in, is it a problem to the airport, considering that it is not available at all from all Spain airports, or to the company itself
ReplyDeleteBad product
ReplyDeleteGood product. You bad
DeleteThe missing online check -in options at Spanish airports is related to fees and permits which Air Serbia has been trying to obtain for some time now already. Spain is a very important destination for the Webs, so it will come for sure.
Delete