Lufthansa's Air Dolomiti takes first Embraer 195

By David Kaminski-Morrow

Lufthansa Group's Italian carrier Air Dolomiti has taken delivery of its first Embraer 195, the first of a batch of 30 in the 190/195 family destined for the German company.

The aircraft is configured with 116 seats and will operate feeder services to Munich and Frankfurt from such cities as Milan, Turin and Verona.

Air Dolomiti formally accepted the jet at Embraer's Sao Jose dos Campos facility in Brazil. It will take delivery of five of the type this year.

Lufthansa is to reinforce its Italian operation further from 2 February, after securing clearance to launch its new Lufthansa Italia division out of Milan.

The first flight will operate to Barcelona and the second to Paris. Lufthansa Italia will add flights to Brussels, Madrid and Bucharest in March, and services to London Heathrow and Lisbons will follow in summer.

Lufthansa has initially assigned two 138-seat, two-class Airbus A319s to the fleet. The carrier's executive vice-president for services and human resources, Karl Ulrich Garnadt, says: "We're launching, for the first time, a new airline outside of Germany.

"That underscores our confidence in the strength of the Italian market and shows how great our support and customer base is in this important market."