Air Serbia is ripping out the business class seats on its A319 and A320 aircraft used for flights within Europe. I learned the hard way.
One of the reasons I was so excited to fly Air Serbia and paid the extra points for business class was because (I thought) the carrier has “real” business class seats on flights within Europe–
Indeed, even on the day I booked (last Saturday), the website still prominently showed these seats on its business class page. (The website has now been updated)
But as I boarded my London to Belgrade flight yesterday I found the following seats instead starting in row one–
The dreaded Recaro slimline seats!
I was shocked because no one had reported these seats anywhere. SeatGuru showed only real business class seats and the spattering of online trip reports also showed only the seats in the first picture above.
Everything else about the flight was nice–the service was particularly warm–but I just could not figure out what happened. Was this aircraft a one-off?
Finally, I asked a FA and she stated that just a few weeks ago Air Serbia had began retrofitting its shortahaul A319 and A320 fleet and would be removing business class on all planes except the A330 used for the New York flight.
It’s Official: All Shorthaul Business Class Seats to be Replaced
Sure enough, after landing in Belgrade I found the following press release from last month–
The slimmer seats are lightweight and designed to take less space, enabling Air Serbia to install additional rows of seats, while improving the overall living space and comfort for guests.
With the cabin refurbishment, seat capacity on the A319 aircraft will increase from 128 to 144 seats and on the A320s from 155 to 174 seats, growing by more than 12 per cent in total across the narrow-body fleet.
…
The new Recaro seats will also be installed in Business Class on the narrow-body fleet, which will seat two guests in each aisle compared to three in Economy, with the middle seat kept empty for extra space.
The Business Class will be separated from Economy Class by a movable class divider, enabling Air Serbia to adapt the number of seats according to travel demand. Up to 12 seats will now be available in Business Class depending on the seating configuration.
The Recaro seats are simply horrible. Despite a nice meal in business class, it is absolutely not worthwhile to spend the extra for business with such an uncomfortable seat. Furthermore, the old business class seats had in-seat power. The new seats have no power outlets. This is a huge downgrade.
Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed as a customer. More importantly, I am deeply disappointed as an analyst because I think the attractive shorthaul business class was key in distinguishing Air Serbia from the competition.
Air Serbia Loses its Competitive Advantage
But perhaps like most Etihad investments, Air Serbia is also ailing. Business was only booked 3/8 on my flight yesterday. Thus, I can understand the desire to have a more versatile, variable business class product. On the other hand, I can guarantee Air Serbia that if it had trouble selling business class before with plush seats, it will have more trouble now. Europe does not need another low-cost carrier. The beauty of Air Serbia was its full service style.
Then again, profitable American Airlines is shrinking seat pitch to 30″ and adding slimline seats. It could be greed rather than desperation driving this retrofit…
CONCLUSION
It is sad to see a product deteriorate, especially a young product like the rebranded Air Serbia. By the time this publishes I’ll be on my flight to New York. I trust that there will not be any surprise cutbacks on that flight…
Actually Air Serbia has been doing excellently financially. Big profit increments. But for example no main line airline in Europe has anything much better then blocked middle seat in Business on short haul anymore. (Unless you pick UIA or Aeroflot). It’s just smart business to add seats and be able to change the configuration.
“We don’t like making money” said no airline ever.
I mean, really, if an airline based in LONDON (you know, one of the only markets that has a shot of supporting an all-J TATL configuration) doesn’t think shorthaul business class seating in a 2×2 config on Airbus narrowbodies pencils out, why is one based in Serbia going to pencil out? Lots more wealthy people living in and traveling to London.
Yes, and I could have flown WizzAir for next to nothing had I known I was getting a Recaro slimline…
Do you realize that there are only 2 airlines left in Europe that still have actual business class seats? The most prominent and profitable airlines in Europe, including Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM and Air France, to name a few, have this same seat configuration with these same recaro seats. This change in Air Serbia is due to low cost rivals in the Balkan region, which forces even airlines such as Air Serbia, which were committed to distinguishing their onboard product, to change up the game in order to keep growing and staying competitive. Air Serbia is the most profitable and also the largest and most prominent airline in the Balkans. And unlike ailing Alitalia and Air Berlin, which are also Etihad Airways partners, Air Serbia is very profitable and continues to grow. Yes, with Wizz Air you would have flown cheaper, but you would have barelly gotten a drink and dont even think about business class service, onboard entertainment, wi-fi, or code share connections to other destinations. Airlines are constantly modifying their product in order to remain competitive in the region within which they operate/are based. Yes, it is sad that Air Serbia got rid of its business class product and changed even the economy seats, but they wouldn’t have done this if they hadn’t HAD TO. And yes, the seats suck, but you would have had the same problem had you flown with BA. The airline recently made this cabin change, as you found out yourself, therefore it takes time for things on the internet to change/update and match the real deal. If you are a professional, please check your facts when you write your articles and make judgments as they sound very childish and uneducated. Your “article” or “review” doesn’t sound like you have a “plethora of knowledge” and a “unique writing perspective,” as you wrote about yourself, you just soundy whiny and uninformed. If you talk like this on CNN and such, hats off to you man.
It was the reason I booked business. It was what they were still advertising when I booked! Don’t I have a right to be disappointed that I did not get what was promised?
But don’t worry, I love your national airline and I will have a very positive review of the BEG-JFK service publishing in the days ahead.
Agree eith you matt.
Hi Matthew. I’m sorry your Air Serbia experience didn’t match mine. I was on a plane that had the old Business Class seats and, wow, it was nice. I hope your onward flight is a better one …
I think I’ll file this under who gives a… I think all my heavily flying consultant friends would agree that none of us care about business class seats in europe or the food on a two hour flight. Business people expense their meals so they don’t care much about lounges either except to put down bags and more comfortably take a leak. We care about not having connections and the planes being somewhat on time. Air Serbia short-haul is nice but it’s almost like a low cost carrier. You have to print out your boarding pass or risk a penalty at checkin. If you fly Air Serbia metal but buy the ticket as an Air Berlin or Aegean code share flight (generally cheaper), you can’t get miles with Etihad. This I found unusual. If I fly Aegean as a Tarom code-share it will still earn me miles in a * program.
Try flying in that seat for 2.5hrs and you’ll be yearning for coach on a US legacy carrier.
A slimline seat from LHR to BEG is perfectly fine. Its under three hours. All European airlines are moving towards this because it makes sense. Case in point – BA – which just announced this March it will begin rolling out slimline seats.
Also, comparing it to WizzAir… WizzAir doesn’t have a lounge, fly to New York, have iPads, inflight internet. Plus who wants to fly from Luton? The cost and time of getting into London from Luton and you might as well pay for a higher fare to London. Can’t just look at seats if you’re going to compare.
Anyway look forward to reading the JFK flight review, hope its more balanced.
That’s so lame! I flew them BEG-TXL in 2015 and said to myself, upon seeing the J cabin, that I would have booked J if I had known, simply for the fun of a real premium seat on a European carrier. Slimline A319/A320s are part of what make intra-European flying so boring and lame
I flew business class from Berlin to Belgrade yesterday. I too was surprised (and disappointed) to see that my comfortable seat had turned into a recaro slimline seat! It wasn’t terrible, but a definite downgrade from their previously excellent short-haul business claas hard product.
The in-flight magazine mentioned the “upgrade” that had already been completed on 10 of Air Serbia’s aircraft. Apparently they’ve had great feedback so far from customers….
At least the soft product (friendly service, delicious meal) was genuinely good.