If you are looking to visit Serbia and flying on a budget and vice versa (going to Germany) you might consider Ryan Air’s line between the two cities.

This was also my first RyanAir experience as they’ve started their operation in Serbia just recently. I was really curious about this flight as the customer reviews about RyanAir are really low and I wanted to compare them to WizzAir.

I’ve booked the ticket two months earlier and got it for 30 EUR both way. Bargain! 🙂 But I’ve heard people paid even less than this. All you have to do is play with the dates.

Hopefully you’ll find my Ryanair Nis experience useful when planning your trip.

Check In Process

First of all, make sure you print and bring your boarding pass with you! If you forget it you’ll pay 15 EUR for the reissue. If you forget to check in online, the airport check in fee is 45 EUR.

During the check in process you’ll be asked if you want to pick a seat or have it randomly selected for you. The standard seat selection costs 8 EUR per flight. I’ve let RyanAir pick a seat for me randomly and I got one in fourth row. Seats from the 2nd to 5th row are actually priority seats and they cost 13 EUR per flight if you decide to reserve one. This isn’t that bad as it will allow you to leave the plane quicker.

If you buy the seat you can check in 30 days prior to departure. If you want it automatically assigned you can check in from 7 days to 2 hours before departure.

Before finalizing the check in process make sure that no extra things were added that you’d be charged for.

How To Get from Belgrade to Nis

There are a couple of ways to get to Nis.

First of all I advise you to check the website of the Belgrade Bus station and their timetable. This will help during the planning process and while matching the right bus. I’ve used Nis Express many times on this route and while they’re not the most comfortable option they get the job done. The tickets are cheap and they have the biggest number of departures (23 daily), which was the key reason to choosing them.

Another option I know of is a shuttle bus company offering transfer between two cities. I’ve never used them but they are listed on the website of Nis Airport. I’m listing them as an alternative but if you have any experiences with this company feel free to leave a comment describing your impressions. The price of one way ticket for the date I picked was 2460 RSD. In comparison return ticket with Nis Express is 1400 RSD.

From the bus station you can go the airport with a bus 34B or get a taxi which is very cheap.

Nis Constantine the Great Airport

This is a very small airport with just one terminal building. Check-in counters are located here. If you have a printed boarding pass and a carry on luggage you don’t need to go to the bag drop counter. I use Cabin Max Metz backpack when flying with low-cost carriers. You can check my full review of the bag here.

Now, I want to emphasize something when it comes to passport control to which many people don’t pay attention to. I advise you to get travel insurance. They’ve almost didn’t let a girl board a flight because she didn’t have it. I’ve been asked about this in a small number of occasions but you never know when it might happen. It’s not mandatory but officials of any country can ask for other supporting documents.

The boarding gate is small and crammed with many people. There’s a small duty free shop here.

If you arrive to the airport early you can waste time at the airport’s restaurant  which is the only option you have here. The airport’s restaurant is very cheap so I’d suggest having a snack before boarding the plane – because there are no meals included at RyanAir’s flight. It’s located before security. There are no other shops at the airport and nothing fun to do around.

Service

The flight departed around 1 hour later but this is typical for low-cost carriers. Note that if you experience a two-hour delay you can apply for a refund or change your delayed flight for free.

The seats are not the most comfortable ones but they are okay for a 2 or a 3-hour flight.

You’ll see advertisements everywhere. Their inflight magazine doesn’t have any interesting articles, it’s all ads! Besides food and beverage, flight attendants will try to sell you perfumes, watches and other merchandise.

The food on board is not free so be ready to pay as I previously mentioned or get something at the airport.

Summary

RyanAir does the job of taking you where you want to go for a very cheap price. This reflects the service, the number of ads, punctuality etc. Considering that you’d be using RyanAir for short flights this should be easy to deal with. Just pay special attention to all the extra fees.

Other Flights

At the moment the only two airlines flying from Nis airport are WizzAir and RyanAir. You can check destinations and their timetable here.