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Flight: JU876Aircraft type: A319 (YU-APN)Scheduled departure time: 23:15Actual departure time: 23:45Scheduled arrival time: 03:10Actual arrival time: 03:08 Air Serbia resumed flights to Cairo earlier this year and this week I flew with them for first time on this route. I had a business class ticket booked and on the day of departure I checked the seat map to see the load. I noticed that the business class section had been reduced from the original 2 rows to 1 row with 3 out of 4 business class seats occupied. This led me to believe that the economy section was likely full since business class was reduced and indeed the flight in economy was almost full.
The blue denotes occupied seats I arrived at Belgrade Airport at around 21:00. Cairo is the first flight on Fridays within Air Serbia’s late-night wave of departures, with most of those taking off between midnight and 1AM. In total there were 13 Air Serbia flights within that two-hour window that evening. I came to the desk (there was only one check-in desk working) and the agent said that her shift was ending and to wait ten minutes until people from the other shift started working. I think that Belgrade is a unique airport where you have to wait for staff to show up in between shifts and that no check-in procedures can be done in between. After they appeared the process went smoothly.
After passing passport and security, I went through the duty free which now has a small self-service cafe in the middle of the store.
Despite having a business class ticket with lounge access, there is no lounge to use at this time. The Air Serbia Premium Lounge closes at 20:00, while the Belgrade Airport Business Lounge closes at 22:00. I find it baffling that an airport and airline with so many flights between 22:00 and 01:00 does not have a lounge open at this time. Not to mention that Air Serbia serves transfer passengers as well who might spend the entire night at the airport until their flight in the morning (something I wouldn't wish on anyone considering that not even a single store works at the airport during the evening and early morning hours). Previously, it was possible to use the Belgrade Airport lounge if the Air Serbia lounge was closed. It was 21:15 and I wanted to have a drink. I entered the lounge and the rude receptionist told me, "We have absolutely nothing to do with Air Serbia. Go to their lounge". I told him their lounge was closed and he responded, "That has nothing to do with me". I told him that it used to be possible to use the Belgrade Airport lounge when the Air Serbia lounge was closed, to which he replied, "That's the first I hear of that. You can go to the Air Serbia transfer desk and ask them to issue you special permission to enter this lounge", at which point I just turned around. The entry to the Belgrade Airport lounge has also been moved to the other side of the lounge and is now through some corridor next to the toilets. All in all, it is disappointing that an airline like Air Serbia doesen't have an operational lounge at its home airport at 9PM on one of the busiest days of the week in their schedule.
I sat at the gate departures area and wanted to do some work on my laptop. My battery was running low so I wanted to plug in one of the in-seat power sockets. Before I even did so I guessed none would be working and none were. I tried around 5 different plugs on five different sets of chairs. At 9PM at Belgrade Airport, which promotes itself as a transfer hub, other than the duty free, has no single store open.
I don't want to dwell on the negatives but I must say VINCI has a big problem and has to do something about their staff. Not a single person I interacted with had any basic customer service skills and all had a nasty attitude. As mentioned, the lady at check in left and yelled to people who were starting to arrive to wait for the next shift to check in. For 10 minutes there was literally no one at the check in desks. The man checking passports before entering the line for passport control took my passport and then held it in his hand for two minutes, not checking it but angrily yelling at his colleague how his roster is unfair. This lasted for two minutes until his colleague said, "Give the man his passport back". At passport control, the policeman took a minute before taking my passport or acknowledging my existence as he was flicking through his phone. At security, the guy watching the x-ray screens was simultaneously chatting on his mobile. And I already mentioned the guy at the lounge. The sad thing is all of them, with exception to the lounge guy, are, I would guess, in their late 20s or early 30s and all were completely disinterested in their job. Boarding began on time at 22:45. Upon boarding I was surprised to see the curtain positioned at the third row with economy class seats beginning from the second. I realised we would basically all be in the same cabin which is fine but a bit bizarre (the curtain wasn't drawn at any point). The seats in the first row are not too comfortable with less legroom than the second row as it is a bulkhead seat and they are slightly smaller in width because the table is in the armrest.
Photo taken during boarding of the rows behind row 1
Upon boarding the crew distributed menus and a few minutes later took the meal and drink selection.
We were slightly delayed as we were waiting for some transfer passengers. The passenger structure on this flight was interesting. There were lots of Egyptians with families, a lot of transfer passengers (just behind me were two Italian ladies and in the second row across a German couple), some Serbs and, surprisingly a lot of Chinese or Far East Asian passengers. Prior to pushback the captain provided us with flight information and apologised for the delay due to the transfers. We would make up the time as we had a half an hour shorter flight time. We had a quick taxi to the runway and took off. Very shortly after take off all-female crew began service. Economy passengers got a large complimentary sandwich, after which the paid service began. We were also served our meals in the first row. I chose the fish, and the food was surprisingly tasty and wasn't dry. Trays were also cleared promptly, and the crew asked if we wanted anything else. Overall, the crew was very pleasant and attentive.
The rest of the flight was very uneventful. The crew dimmed the lights so passengers could nap. I noticed that the crew only allowed business class passengers to use the front lavatory despite the single-cabin set-up. Before landing we were issued arrival cards for Egypt.
We landed exactly on schedule and parked at the gate. I was the first off the plane and the rest was a breeze. Together with the wait to pick up my luggage and customs control it took 25 minutes until I was curbside.
After picking up my luggage I met the driver waiting for me, since I pre-ordered a ride through Air Serbia's website. This is a new and relatively recent feature on their site and it worked smoothly. Obviously Air Serbia uses a third-party provider for the rides but it is easy to just book over the Air Serbia website and someone from the ride service gets in contact with you straight away. The reason I booked it in the first place is because I didn't feel like haggling with a taxi driver at Cairo Airport at 4AM and it was really cheap anyway. 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 - Cairo
Sourced From: www.exyuaviation.com/2023/10/trip-report-air-serbia-belgrade-cairo.html
Published Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:59:00 +0000
