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Earlier this week I used one of Air Serbia’s three daily flights to Budapest and came back a few days later. I booked my ticket some five days before my flight at a price of around 120 euros return. Out of the three flights I selected the afternoon one, both for the outbound and inbound, which was convenient for me. Although I have a registered account on the Air Serbia’s website, since it was redesigned a few months ago, it is impossible to log in, with the message that your password is incorrect, but even if you set up a new password it is impossible to log in, and this has been an issue I have heard others have too. I also considered purchasing the ticket with miles, but the miles chart for award tickets has been removed from the website since the redesign. While I don’t mind the appearance of the new look website, some two months later, it is still full of bugs and a lot of information is missing, which makes me wonder what the relevant department is doing. I am sure they have, by now, heard at least the feedback that it is not possible to log into accounts. I arrived at the airport around two hours ahead of departure and it was very busy, with a lot of people flying for the holidays. I was interested to see what the load and passenger structure would be for the flight. As this is an ATR-operated flight, we were assigned one of the bus gates - A7A. Boarding began right on time as indicated on the boarding pass and there were some fifty people on this flight. I would say 90% were transfers. There were Chinese, Russians, French, and to my surprise, many of the passengers were from Spain. Later on, on the streets of Budapest I would notice that every other person seemed to be speaking Spanish. Of course, there were also Serbian and Hungarian passengers too. As all passengers were at the gate on time, we boarded the bus quickly and were taken to the B platform for boarding. There I noticed some new ground handler personnel were getting trained by a senior.
There were two female cabin crew members on the YU-ALX ATR72-600. I was impressed by the cabin. It was clean, the seats were comfortable, and it looked as if the plane was brand new, even though it isn’t. We were given a short welcome message by the captain who said he would inform us in more detail about the flight information upon departure. The pre-recorded safety message was played, and we had a short taxi to the middle of the runway from which we took off on time. The flight was uneventful. Upon departure the crew distributed a bag of pretzel sticks and water, after which they passed through with the pay-on-board service, although there were no takers. Both crew members were pleasant and courteous.
After a short 40 minutes we began our descent into Budapest and arrived slightly ahead of schedule.
The return flight was much the same, so I won’t go into detail, but I have uploaded some photos below from the inbound journey. Once again, most of the passengers were transfers and there were around 50-60 passengers. On the return flight there were quite a few Hungarian families. While waiting in line at check in, an American family behind me were talking about their connecting flight to Paris, while the people in front of me were Greek. As you approach Budapest Airport from the highway, there is a big billboard with an image of Belgrade and the Air Serbia logo along with “To Belgrade and beyond”. I saw it too late to have taken a photo. However, at Budapest Airport, which was also very busy at the time, there is an Air Serbia ad advertising its 16 weekly flights.
Overall, my flight with Air Serbia was enjoyable. I’m a fan of this relatively new high-frequency Budapest service. Not only does it cut travel time and long waits at the boarder (especially in summer and around the holidays) but it also gives you an option to do a day trip from Belgrade, by taking the morning flight and returning with the evening one. The tickets are not expensive, considering what I paid by booking a ticket just days in advance. I was also impressed by the state of the ATR72-600 and both my flights were on time, arriving at my destination ahead of schedule on both occasions. My only peeve on this journey was the website experience, which I imagine can be fixed within days. Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to [email protected] EX-YU Aviation NewsBy: EX-YU Aviationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]
Title: TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, Belgrade - Budapest
Sourced From: www.exyuaviation.com/2023/12/trip-report-air-serbia-belgrade-budapest.html
Published Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2023 05:59:00 +0000
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