How can you miss a plane?

From the loudspeaker on airport some names are constantly being published. People they are late or they don't come. Everyone is looking for them, sometimes they would take them through the controls over the line. Often it's not even worth it.

So, how does that happen?

"Most often, people just come late." They think they checked in online, so they have a head start. But it's too late," Jovan Joković, who worked at the Belgrade airport as a ground steward for ten years, tells us.

"Or they don't tell where the plane is." For example, the gate changes because the plane changes. Or the airport changes the place of arrival. And people don't look at the board all the time," he says.

Those familiar with the subject say that our singers are often late when they go to Frankfurt and Dusseldorf to entertain the pečalbara.

For our newsletter Medjuvreme, Joković talks about the "record holder" she remembers: "One woman traveled for four days - she got drunk in transit, missed her flight, bought a new ticket. He gets drunk again and so on. She also found a company to hang out with."

No one is obliged to call people

The airport is not obliged to call checked-in passengers over the public address system. Actually, it's not the airport that works, but the airlines.

As they tell us from "Nikola Tesla" Airport, the names that are heard are only checked passengers. "Passengers who have not gone through the flight check-in process cannot be called over the public address system, because the airlines do not have a record of them."

And if they report somewhere, then they will generally be called out or escorted through the line. "It happens that there are not enough staff at the airport to catch passengers," says Joković.

Airlines decide when the gate is - some close boarding twenty, some only ten minutes before take-off.

There's actually not much delay.

So, how many people miss their flight on average? There don't seem to be any records of that. Air Serbia ignored Medjuvrem's inquiries.

Joković speaks from experience: "Less than one percent of people are late through their own fault." On one plane, it happens that one or two people don't come, but not on every flight."

It's another matter if the connection is delayed due to transfer. "For transfer passengers, if the incoming flight is late, the company itself takes twenty passengers off the flight."

"They are discussing whether it is worth waiting for them, whether the plane still has important rotations." Let's say, they often wait in the evening. They have the whole night ahead because the next flight is only in the morning."

In that case, when it is not the passenger's fault, they often stay in a hotel at the airline's expense to wait for the next flight.

When the captain gets angry

There's another stupid delay situation. Someone checks in their luggage, but gets stuck at the airport and doesn't make it to the plane.

"Luggage must not leave alone." A passenger without luggage can, but not the other way around. This is because of the possibility of planting something in the luggage," says Joković.

"That's when everyone curses." Imagine, if that person checked in first, then the bag is the first. All luggage is removed. And then what if the passenger shows up? Then the captain won't even hear to take him back because he's already delayed because of his suitcase."