Avis du vol entre Budapest et Belgrad en classe Economique avec Air Serbia

Welcome to the third flight report of the Balkans series. In this flight report, I cover the rebooked flight from Budapest to Belgrade, over our original flight to Belgrade.
This flight was flown in economy class on Air Serbia, seen as an exotic airline in my part of the world. It was my first time trying the Serbian national carrier.

Before flight: Budapest Airport

We arrived from Doha on QR199 and had 2.5h to transfer to Air Serbia.
Horrors of horrors, Budapest's notion of transfer required us to clear customs, enter Hungary, then manually going to the connecting airline's counter and re-obtaining a boarding pass.

As QR199 arrived with a nearly full load, the 3 border officials struggled to clear the backlog.
Panicking, I asked one of the security staff stationed in the area if I could use the counter for Hungarian citizens since we had a tight connection. I showed her our connecting ticket and she brought us to the front of the queue. I appreciated her help.

The customs official on the other hand, was not amused. He initially asked us to join the back of the queue until the same security staff came to explain our predicament. The customs official then processed our entry.

We thought the worst was over. Apparently not.

After baggage collection, there was a strict baggage check on people entering Hungary. All travelers had to send their bags through the X-ray scanner, and only 1 X-ray scanner was available. This added to our anxiety as we feared we may not make the connection. At that juncture, we only had 1h 40 minutes left to connect.

I tried my luck by asking the security officer to let us through due to the tight connection, but was denied and was told 'Family only', and pointed to a family with children.

We then made it through with 1h 15 minutes left to connect. I did not manage to take any photos of Budapest Airport due to the rush.

Next, we had to make our way to the Air Serbia counter. BUD airport departures are split into 2 terminals. We had to change terminals as Air Serbia departs in a different terminal from QR's arrival terminal. I managed to wing it and find the Air Serbia counter after navigating through a narrow corridor which connects both terminals on the departure level. This is not obvious for transfer passengers and more signage will be appreciated.

The next blow came soon after we approached the Air Serbia counter: 1 of our bags failed to be located and thus cannot be transferred. The check-in agent promised to update us when boarding if the bag had been located. She kept her word and managed to locate the missing bag.

We collected our boarding passes for Air Serbia and quickly cleared customs to enter the terminal. Mentally exhausted, we collapsed on the chairs at our departure gate to take a much needed breather. It was 40 minutes before departure then. We made our connection!

Inflight experience

Boarding was called and it was a bus gate. The ATR72 is a small aircraft so a jetbridge isn't needed for boarding. Passengers boarded through the back door and were greeted by a flight attendant.
I was visibly excited since it was both my first time on Air Serbia and a propeller plane.
I like the livery as it uses their national colours well.
Operating JU143 is a YU-ALW, a 7.1 year old ATR72-600

Being a narrowbody short range aircraft, I had expected the legroom to be pathetic.
However, the legroom was much better than I thought, presumably due to the bigger frames of Serbian people. According to Wikipedia, they have one of the world's tallest people. I'm glad JU kept the frames of their people in mind.
That was indeed the case when we visited Belgrade and Novi Sad, with most people bigger than my family and I.

The seat pocket contained the safety card, vomit bag, airline megazine and a buy-on-board (BOB) menu.
Prices on the BOB menu were very reasonable even by Singapore standards, or maybe Scoot BOB is ridiculously costly.
I particularly like that the safety card is printed in the national colours of the Serbian flag.

I enjoyed the view of the wing as the plane readied for departure. The ATR72 wasn't as noisy as I thought.

After takeoff, the crew sprung into action to prepare for the service.

Due to the presence of the BOB menu in the seat pocket, I had expected a full BOB service like Lufthansa. However, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a bottle of water and an Air Serbia themed Plazma crackers.
The Plazma crackers tasted mildly sweet like normal biscuits. The water tasted good, on par with Western European mineral water brands.

After the snack distribution, the crew went around with 1 round of BOB service, where some passengers ordered some snacks or hot drinks.
I just looked out of the window to enjoy the Balkan scenery. I like the ATR72 now because it flies on a much lower altitude, so it allows me to have a clearer view of the ground.

The flight landed punctually and we arrived 5h 20 mins later than our original QR231 flight. This required me to tweak my travel itinerary.
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is much more efficient than Budapest airport and it is clear much more planning has been done for it. The arrival experience in Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport felt more seamless.
We took bus A1 to Slavija Square and walked to our hotel for the night.

In conclusion, a pleasant flight with Air Serbia and I'm glad to have tried them. I hope to try them on a longer flight sometime if the opportunity presents itself.