History: Air Dolomiti

Air Dolomiti is a regional airline, part of the Lufthansa Group as a wholly owned subsidiary. It's headquartered in Dossobuono, Villafranca di Verona, Italy and it operates out of Munich Airport and Frankfurt Airport under the Lufthansa Regional branch of its parent company. It has also some flights which are sold under its own Air Dolomiti brand.

History

On 30 December 1989 Linee Aeree Europee estabilished Air Dolomiti. The name of the airline is given after the section of the Alps known as The Dolomites. Operations were started January 1991 with the Trieste-Genoa route. Later in 1992 the airline started operating international services with flights from Verona to Munich.

Air Dolomiti had a co-operation agreement with Lufthansa which acquired a 26% stake of the company in January 1999 , increased its share to 52% in April 2003 and 100% in July 2003. Air Dolomiti has been controlled by Lufthansa since then as a member of the Lufthansa Regional branch.

In September 2018 , Lufthansa announced that it will transfer 12 pre-owned Embraer 190 and Embraer 195 aircraft from its Lufthansa Cityline subsidiary to Air Dolomiti. This will result in a significant fleet expansion for Air Dolomiti.

Corporate affairs and identity

While most Lufthansa Regional subsidiaries operate under their parent's name and colours, Air Dolomiti retained its own identity. The airline's registered office was in Dossobuono, Villafranca di Verona.

Destinations

Air Dolomiti operates a few flights under its own brand and the rest for Lufthansa Regional

Fleet

As of March 2014 the Air Dolomiti fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Aircraft	In service	Orders	Passengers	Notes
Embraer E-190	-	9	100	Orders to be transferred from Lufthansa CityLine
Embraer E-195	15	2	120	Orders to be transferred from Lufthansa CityLine
Total	15	11	-	-

Air Dolomiti's aircraft are named after titles of famous Italian operas as a tribute to the city of Verona and its famous ancient theatre, the Arena di Verona.

Historic fleet

Aircraft type	Number of aircraft
ATR 42/ATR 72	29
Bombardier CRJ-100 Series	5
British Aerospace BAe 146/Avro RJ	6
De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8	3
Embraer E 190	1
Fokker F70/Fokker F100	2

Accidents and incidents

• On 7 November 1999 Air Dolomiti Flight 2708, a Fokker 100, wet-leased from Alpi Eagles (registration I-ALPL, c/n 11250), was flying from Venice Marco Polo Airport, Italy, having 44 people on board suffered a maingear failure while approaching Barcelona International Airport, Spain - the aircraft made a safe landing on a foam carpet laid down by emergency services.
• On 24 August 2008 an Air Dolomiti ATR 72 (registration I-ADLM, c/n 543), was operating flight LH3990 from Munich, Germany, to Bologna, Italy. During take off a smoke alarm occured and the aircraft had to stop and evacuate people. The plane's evacuation was presented as a mild incident. However on 26 August 2008, an amateur video, filmed by a bystander, was circulating to great interest on television and the Internet. The footage shows tense moments of some 60 passengers jumping from and fleeing the burning plane before fire department workers extinguish the flames.
• On 17 May 2012 an Air Dolomiti ATR 72-500 was operating on flight EN-1912/LH-1912 from Munich to Venice. The aircraft had to return to Munich after the pilots shut down the right engine because smoke was discovered in both cockpit and cabin. After touchdown the airplane deviated from the southern runway and came to a standstill about 80 metres into the grass covered side strip. The nose gear has collapsed in the process. Out of the 58 passengers and four crew members aboard, five passengers are reported to have received minor injuries ¹ .

Further reading

Airlines in Italy
Lufthansa