Flight review: Air Serbia A320 Business Class
Flight#: JU694
From: Belgrade (BEG)
To: Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
Flight time: 2h 30min
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
This was the return flight of a trip to Belgrade in which I had the chance to try out Air Serbia’s experience both in economy and business. You will find the economy class flight report here.
The trip was courtesy of Air Serbia. Comments are my own.
Pre-flight experience - Air Serbia Lounge at Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport
As home airline, Air Serbia has its own lounge at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. It is not big. It is basically a room with a divider in the middle that separates it in two parts: one more suitable for relax or work and the other for those that wish to eat.
Interestingly, coffee and alcohol were served only at a permanently staffed bar.
Although I wouldn’t say it rich in amenities, I liked the calm atmosphere, which contrasts with the super buzzing lounges you come across at some airports nowadays. The food was also nothing extravagant but very nice, after all you don’t want to stuff yourself on the ground when another tasty meal awaits for you onboard (more on this soon).
By the way, another small details that I noticed is that, there are also a prayer rooms, which is something many larger lounges don’t have.
The flight
This was a relatively short flight (a bit more than 2h), so there is only so much you can do with the business class.
I was surprised to find that there was only a business class row on this flight, so the experience felt rather exclusive and personalized.
Air Serbia uses mobile dividers to adjust the space dedicated to the premium cabin (on my earlier flight to Belgrade, which I flew on economy, there were two rows, for example).
The seats are not very different from those in economy (although the first row has the more solid, fixed armrests with a foldable tray, rather than the lighter ones you can move upwards.
Adding also a picture of the toilet to complete the whole cabin review. As you will see, just the regular aircraft toilet.
Food and amenities
While there are no specific amenities, the food on Air Serbia’s business class turned out to be rather good.
Crew were also very attentive at all times (I guess it helps when you have only two business class passengers to take care of!).
The business class menu
Lunch is served
Salad
Main course
Dessert
Aperitif - Serbia style
There is no IFE on Air Serbia’s narrow body aircraft, although the airline still has not one, but two inflight paper magazines (the traditional airline one, plus another one about specialty food and drink in Serbia).
I must say that both were rather interesting and while I usually spend time on my own electronic devices nowadays, I set those aside for a while to turn the pages the old traditional way!
(I also liked the fact that the magazines are presented very neatly in a plastic folder located in the front pouch)
Our take
Air Serbia has a simple but nice business class on its European flights operated by narrow body aircraft. Don’t expect great extravagance, neither on the ground or onboard, but it gets all the basics right!