Air Serbia

Air Serbia is the Serbian flag carrier, flying from Belgrade across the Balkans and Europe, with one long-haul route that defines its public image: the nonstop to New York, the run its widebodies exist to serve. The airline traces its lineage to JAT, Yugoslavia's flag carrier, and the modern operation keeps that full-service shape in miniature: a European network, a turboprop feeder fleet and a small long-haul arm.

The fleet reads simply until the widebodies. Airbus A319s and A320s fly the European sectors, ATR 72s cover the region, and then there are the A330-200s, which fly in three different layouts, each from a different previous life and each with a different business cabin. Which one operates your flight changes the front of the aircraft entirely.

The A320 is a standard three-by-three economy cabin for the European network. The A319 flies the same formula with a convertible zone at the front: the first rows sell as business with the middle seat left empty, European style, rather than as different hardware. The ATR 72-600 handles the short regional hops, two-by-two with no middle seats at all.

The A330-200s are the story. All three layouts carry real lie-flat business seats, but the fits differ sharply: the flagship layout is a staggered cabin where most seats are solo thrones, a second runs an older six-abreast arrangement whose centre pair gives both seats direct aisle access, and a third, the most generously pitched, alternates rows of thrones with rows of true centre pairs. Economy on all of them is the widebody two-four-two, where a window pair suits two people travelling together and the centre block holds the only middle seats.

On the narrowbodies the product is European standard. The A319's business zone buys an empty middle seat, better catering and the front of the cabin rather than a different chair, and economy across both types is a tidy three-by-three with the extra legroom concentrated at the bulkhead and exits.

The A330s are a different animal, and which animal depends on the airframe. All of them offer a flat bed to New York; how private that bed is, how far it stretches and whether a couple can sit properly together all vary by layout. It is a fleet where the same route, cabin and fare can put you in three noticeably different seats, so the layout on your date deserves a moment of attention before any seat fee is paid.

In A330 business, solo travellers should chase the throne seats, which two of the three layouts carry in some number, while couples should aim for a fit with centre pairs or the six-abreast one with its window pairs. In the two-four-two economy, a window pair is the couples pick, the bulkheads and exits hold the legroom, and the innermost centre-block seats are the only true middles to plan around.

On the A319, remember the business zone is the same seat with the middle blocked: worth it for the elbow room and the early exit on a longer sector, not for the hardware. The ATR boards and disembarks through the rear door, so its back rows are first on and first off, and its front bulkhead row carries the legroom.