FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: Air Serbia ATR72 economy class, Belgrade to Zagreb

Air Serbia ATR72 economy class, Belgrade to Zagreb
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01. Trip report introduction
02. Air Serbia A319 economy class, Stockholm to Belgrade
~~03. Air Serbia ATR72 economy class, Belgrade to Sarajevo~~
03. Air Serbia ATR72 economy class, Belgrade to Zagreb
04. Croatia Airlines Dash 8 economy class, Zagreb to ~~Sarajevo~~ Zagreb
05. Sheraton Zagreb Hotel, Zagreb
06. Primeclass Lounge, Zagreb Airport
07. Croatia Airlines/Air Nostrum CRJX business class, Zagreb to Copenhagen
08. SAS A321 economy class, Copenhagen to Stockholm
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Belgrade (BEG) to Zagreb (ZAG)

Date: 2018-06-02
Flight number: Air Serbia JU234
Aircraft: ATR72
Registration: YU-ALO
Age of aircraft: 27 years
Duration of flight: 1:12 (gate to gate)
Seat: 6C (economy class)

Seat map with my seat (6C) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

As we stepped off our A319 from Stockholm, it was clear that we would miss our connection. The pilot made an announcement about connecting flights, but our Sarajevo flight was not mentioned. And once we got into the terminal building and found a departures board, we saw that our flight had departed ten minutes earlier. Ugh.

When we came to the service and transfer desk of Air Serbia, there were already some people there. It turned out they had had some delayed flights this morning, so more people had missed their connections. But the good thing about this was that they were prepared for us. As we got to the desk, they simply asked "Sarajevo or Tirana?" and ticked us off a list, handed out something to eat (the same wraps that we got on the flight here, but only chicken this time) and told us to go to the check in desks to receive our boarding passes for our new flights. Belgrade-Zagreb with Air Serbia, and then Zagreb-Sarajevo with Croatia Airlines. I was excited about trying out Croatia Airlines for the first time, but it was also a bummer that we would arrive in Sarajevo eight hours later than intended... Oh well, we would have a couple of hours to spend in Sarajevo the next day. (Or so I thought...)

Chicken wrap for second lunch. Not as good as the veggie one...

Air Serbia hand luggage bag tag

Drinking an espresso while waiting for our flight to Zagreb

Air Serbia lounge at Belgrade - little did I know that we would get to try another lounge in the morning

This flight seems to be on time... Fingers crossed!

It was kind of a long wait, but at least we had each other. It would certainly have been more boring had I done this trip on my own. Finally, it was only an hour until scheduled time of departure, and we got to enter the gate area. At BEG, the security checks are located at the gate entrances. This means that instead of one huge security check area, there are one small area at every gate. It sure seems inefficient staff wise, but maybe it's a way to employ more people here at the airport..?

Security check completed, and we're allowed to enter the waiting area of our gate

Waiting for a bus to take us to our remote stand

Since we were flying a small ATR72 to Zagreb, we had to wait for a bus to take us to a remote stand. I can't imagine what a jet bridge would have to look like in order to be able to use on an ATR, where boarding is made through the back door! In our original itinerary, we were flying an ATR72 to Sarajevo, so although we got rerouted, I would still get to try out this type of aircraft for the first time. They've been around for almost 30 years, and are still produced. There are also quite many of them in the Swedish airspace, so it was a little surprising that I had unintentionally managed to avoid them for so long.

I had to snatch a photo of this A319 before shooting our bird - this is the perk of remote stands - unobstructed views of aircraft!

And here is our bird - the tail fin is not as good looking on these ATR72:s, IMO

Boarding is only made through the rear door on most ATRs

First time on an ATR72 - here we go!

One last breath of Serbian air, now we're off to Croatia!

Parked in my seat (6C) for this short flight

Homework before taking off...

I had an aisle seat for this flight (in fact, all three of us had), so photo opportunities of the outside world were far from perfect

This 27 year old plane had certainly seen better days...

Air vents

When boarding was completed, the cabin crew offered glasses of water before departure. Just like on the previous flight, the crew was very friendly and professional. The plane itself had seen better days though. It had been around for a long time, and it was certainly starting to show. The design felt very quadrangular, a far cry from today's streamlined cabins. The seat back was pretty thick, but the seat was not very comfortable. Luckily this was a short flight.

Pushback was punctual, and this turned out to be one of few JU flights on time out of BEG this day. The aircraft was really loud as we took off, and even though it became less loud once we reached cruising altitude, turboprops are often a lot noisier than jet airliners. Some fifteen minutes after take-off, the snack service started. We got sparkling water and peanuts, but I didn't see anyone else getting the same snack. Maybe we got it because of our delay?

Sparkling water and peanuts

The seats came in "gym class mattress blue"

I'll try to get a window seat next time I fly an ATR, in order to get better shots of the propellers

This was the best I could do without leaning over my seat mate too much...

The seat clothing was fastened with velcro. Classy! ;)

The flight was pretty uneventful, and we touched down in Zagreb ahead of schedule. After taxiing for a few minutes, we reached the gate right on time. Well done, Air Serbia! Now we had approximately two and a half hours to kill before the last flight of this day, a Croatia Airlines Dash 8 heading for Sarajevo! Despite our delays, I must say that Air Serbia had been nothing but professional, and both flights had been pleasant, although this last airplane would be better off on the scrapheap sooner rather than later. It did add a certain charm to our trip, though...