Introduction/context
Hello and welcome to another flight report!
This FR covers the 2nd leg of my return trip from the Austrian Alps, where I flew from Salzburg to London via Belgrade (you can find the FR for the first leg and a few pictures of my approach into Innsbruck here). Looking on a map, this is very much not the most efficient way to travel between the 2 cities as I'll be flying in the opposite direction first to get to Belgrade before flying right over Salzburg to get to London. I chose this routing mainly because it was one of the only options for the day I selected plus I wanted to try Air Serbia and visit Belgrade for a night.
Flight routing
- 1easyJet|Economy|London Gatwick (LGW) → Innsbruck (INN)|Airbus A320
- 2
- 3Air Serbia|Economy|Belgrade (BEG) → London Heathrow (LHR)|Airbus A320
Anyway, I arrived from Salzburg the night before and stayed in a hotel for the night. One of the great thing about Serbia is that everything is quite a bit cheaper than Western Europe.
From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this trip is:
LGW-INN: 102kg
SZG-BEG-LHR: 183kg
Total: 285kg.
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (beg)
After the fairly long queues for passport control the night before, I decided to arrive at the airport with plenty of time.
The main hall.
Some shops near the entrance, including a handy 24 hour convenience shop.
The airport has 2 terminals. It appears that due to renovations, the vast majority of flights will be departing from T2. I had checked on the airport's website and there appears to be only one or two easyJets that depart out of T1 everyday.
Check-in area for Terminal 1 - Wizz is using the area for check-ins however they all depart out of the other terminal, which is quite confusing.
The walkway that connects the main entrance to Terminal 2.
The main Air Serbia check-in area. I had checked-in the day before in Salzburg but the queue doesn't seem to be too long.
There are also a few self check-in kiosks on the left, I'm not too sure why no one is using them.
Security is located on the 2nd floor above check-in. It is very crowded, as you can see. This is mainly because over half of the entire space is blocked off for renovations.
Renovations started in 2020 and should increase the airport's capacity once finished, although I'm not too sure how long that'll take.
Security took around 40 minutes. I had anticipated this after arriving here yesterday, which is why I arrived early.
Walking through the duty-free area.
The main departures area, there is a wide variety of cafes and restaurants.
The departure board for the morning. As you can see, our flight (10:20 to Heathrow) is delayed by around 40 minutes. This means more time for planespotting!
The airport is divided into the A gates and the C gates, with the latter making up the vast majority of the terminal. C01-05 is located in the older part.
With the rest located in the much newer extension.
The seating in the newer part of the terminal.
With my flight being delayed for around an hour, it's time for some planespotting!
Air Serbia A319 (YU-APC) getting ready to depart for Paris (CDG).
Lufthansa A320 to Frankfurt (FRA).
And the highlight of the day:
Air Serbia A330-200 (YU-ARB) featuring a portrait of Nikola Tesla on the tail getting ready to depart for New York (JFK).
This honestly is up there as one of my favourite liveries right now.
A view of the construction taking place right now. You can see Terminal 1 in the distance on the left.
THe flight
The flight time today will be 2 hours and 50 minutes and here is our route:
Here's our plane arriving late from Rome (FCO) - it arrived 5 minutes after our scheduled departure time.
Some info about our Airbus A320:
Registration: YU-APO
Age: ~8 Years
One of only two A320s in Air Serbia's fleet, she was delivered in December 2014 to Indian carrier Vistara and had a long life with the airline before joining Air Serbia in October 2022.
On a side note, this flight is usually operated by an A319 but it changed to an A320 for today only.
Passengers started queueing before the plane's even arrived.
The seats on this A320 is the same as what you'd find on a Vistara flight…
… you can tell because of the Hindi on the back of the seats (Air Serbia tried to cover it up with stickers, but mine came off).
The legroom - pretty average.
All of the seats recline, which is pretty nice.
View out of the window.
Pushback 1 hour and 10 minutes late.
Departure out of runway 12.
Amazing views of Belgrade and its surroundings right after takeoff.
Climbing through the clouds.
Reaching our cruising altitude as the crew started coming around with service.
The service consisted of a bottle of water and a small snack, which was 2 biscuits. This is pretty much the same as the service on my Salzburg - Belgrade flight. I would've liked something a bit more than this but it's obvious the small service is to encourage people to buy from the BOB menu…
…which offers a decent selection for a reasonable price. (Quick disclaimer, the photos below are taken on the SZG-BEG flight, the contents of the seatback pockets are the same on both flights so I didn't bother taking the photos again.)
Talking about the seatback pocket, it contains (along with the menu):
- An air safety card
- An air-sickness bag:
- A small magazine on Serbian food and culture:
- And an inflight magazine:
Air Serbia's route map:
I slept for quite a bit after service and woke up as we are around Paris.
Starting descent into London Heathrow.
Fairly thick clouds over the city today.
First views of the UK. No arial shots of Central London today sadly.
On final for runway 27R.
First views of Heathrow. British Airways' maintenance hanger can be seen on the right.
Welcome to London! We landed 1 hour and 10 minutes late.
Air Serbia uses Terminal 4, so we'll have to taxi across most of the airport to get to our gate.
Virgin Atlantic's brand new A330-900 on the right. As of the making of this FR, the airline have 3 currently with a further 13 on order. I'd love to try them one day.
Parked at the gate.
London heathrow (LHR)
One of the amazing things about Terminal 4 is that is it much quieter than the other terminals. The terminal is usually busiest in the morning, and in the afternoon (when we landed), it is very quiet. There were absolutely no queues for passport control.
Baggage reclaim area.
The arrivals area.
That concludes my first trip of 2023! I had an amazing time in Austria and visiting Serbia for a night was a wonderful bonus. Thanks for reading and see you in another Flight Report soon!
Hello, Lia!
No worries. That's totally expected from an avgeek!
That's my kind of place!
It must be because of the renovations, as you say. That doesn't look practical or logical at all!
Brrrrrr.... long corridors give me the shudders as of late!!
That's a lot!
Weeeee!!!
I like it when airlines keep a minimum complimentary service even if they have a bob menu.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful report again, Ria!Hello, Lia!
No worries. That's totally expected from an avgeek!
That's my kind of place!
It must be because of the renovations, as you say. That doesn't look practical or logical at all!
Brrrrrr.... long corridors give me the shudders as of late!!
That's a lot!
Weeeee!!!
I like it when airlines keep a minimum complimentary service even if they have a bob menu.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful report again, Lia!
Hey Pilpintu!
Haha yes, I find great joy taking long and convoluted ways to get from A to B (especially when it's cheap!)
Yes! Especially after travelling around a fairly expensive country, it feels amazing to be surprised at how cheap everything is (rather than the other way around).
It very much isn't, I spent ages trying to figure out how the terminals worked and I'm still confused to this day lol.
Thanks for reading! ;)
How cool that you got the one and only ex-Vistara A320 in the fleet! While the free snack and water on the ATR was just fine, the same thing on a 3 hr flight is a shame. But yeah that's the norm anymore in Europe and the US...in the US you get that on 5-6h transcons. And like you said at least the BOB is decent--the airline I fly the most domestic in the US, AA haven't fully brought back BOB since the pandemic so there's a choice of like 2 or 3 snack items for purchase on 6h transcons, and nothing of substance, i.e. no sandwiches. So in that regard JU do a decent job.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Kevin! Thanks for your comment. I've read about the service (or the lack of it) on transcons in NA and I must admit that it doesn't sound fun at all. What I find interesting is that 6 hr is just shorter than some of the transatlantic flights yet the latter gets a much better service (I hope). I'm kinda glad we don't have flights that long in Europe, although I think Ryanair/Wizz do fly a few 5 hr flights (which sounds torturous) but they're not too common thankfully.