With the somewhat unexpected closure of Lufthansa’s Cityline, Lufthansa has had to scramble to find viable alternatives to fill the gap left by the end of its regional subsidiary. Air Dolomiti has already picked up quite a lot of the traffic previously operated by the Cityline fleet. Now Austrian Airlines has even started transferring its Embraers to the Italian carrier as it seeks to expand its operation for the Lufthansa Group.

While it is certainly commendable that Lufthansa has acted so swiftly to limit disruption for its passengers, the root of the problem remains: the relationship between Lufthansa’s navel gazing management and its pilots is at an all-time low. There is clearly a lot of distrust and resentment on both sides, and it is questionable whether the current situation can be salvaged..

Getting to the Airport

The flight to Frankfurt departs at 11h00. Just before nine in the morning I leave my home for the railway station to catch the bus line 50 to the airport. At this time of day the bus isn’t very full. The journey out to Basel Airport from the station takes about fifteen minutes.

Lufthansa Check-In

I’ve already checked in online. I notice that since the demise of Lufthansa’s Cityline, the flights operated by Air Dolomiti are checked in under the LH flight number again, and no longer under the EN flight number.

Swissport Aspire Lounge Basel

Security is not very busy. The information screen says that queuing time is ten minutes, but it’s actually much shorter. From security I head straight for the Swissport lounge. It’s a gorgeous, sunny day in Basel today, so I’m hoping to find a place to sit outside in the shade.

At 10h14, eleven minutes ahead of schedule, the inbound from Frankfurt lands and taxis to its stand at gate 46. As much as I’d love to stay out here, I guess I better slowly start packing up my things and be on my way.

Lufthansa Boarding

The boarding gate for the Lufthansa flights seems to move around quite a bit at Basel Airport. Today we’re at gate 46, which is a stand with an airbridge. Boarding starts on time at 10h40. As I pass the gate, the attendant attaches cabin baggage tags to my luggage. Orders from Frankfurt, apparently. She smiles at me and tells me that next, they’ll be likely to have to tag passengers too!

Air Dolomiti Business Class Cabin & Seat

The Air Dolomiti cabin is attractive. The seats they have installed are similar to those Air France has on its Embraer fleet, except that Air Dolomiti does not appear to have power sockets installed on its aircraft. There are two rows of Business Class on today’s flight. However, only two out of four seats are occupied, with me on 1F and another guy on 1A.

Air Dolomiti Business Class Service & Crew

There are two male crew in the cabin on this flight. They’re friendly enough, I guess. It’s just a bit weird that their interactions with passengers are done mostly wordlessly. I’m reading emails on my iPhone, when one of the crew silently sticks a packaged wet towel under my nose.

A short while later, he returns with a bottle of still water and a tab flavoured of black tea and peach that you can drop in the water to give it some flavour (Don’t do it!). I’m also handed a small black envelope of cosmetics (?!?) without further explanation.

We’re delayed pushing back by fifteen minutes due to a technical issue on our aircraft. With a flight time of only forty minutes, the crew are expecting us to be on stand in Frankfurt about ten minutes late.

Air Dolomiti Business Class Meal – Light Snack

The meal service begins soon after take-off. The tray consists of just the one plate – together with butter, olive oil, and the cutlery. What is a bit odd, though, is that when the cabin crew offers me a bread roll from the breadbasket, there are only three rolls looking quite forlorn in the huge basket. I’m also wondering who the arbiter shall be if Mr. 1A and I both claim the surplus roll.

The meal is not bad. It’s basically a mixed salad with two cubes of feta cheese in a sesame crust. I’m a bit stumped about the aubergine coloured cream. I ask the cabin crew about it and he tells me it’s a beetroot hummus. I fight the impulse to explain to him that there is no such thing as beetroot hummus. That would be like giving and Italian a tomato and claiming its a carb-free pizza.

The tray is removed, and I’m asked if I’d like a coffee. I ask for an espresso and I’m mightily impressed when, a short while later, the cabin crew serves me the real deal – a rich and creamy espresso in a small Illy cup. The coffee is served with a small square of dark chocolate and some divine stracciatella biscuit.

Arrival in Frankfurt

Frankfurt is busy this afternoon. Approaches are on all three parallel runways. We land on the southernmost of the three parallels and quickly taxi to our stand. First, there’s a bit of a delay in getting the stairs attached to our aircraft. And once that’s out of the way, there’s another delay while we wait for a bus to come pick us up. By the time I finally enter the terminal on the A concourse, I only have fifteen minutes left before my onward connection starts boarding.

Conclusions

The experience with Air Dolomiti was not bad. In fact, the crew were rather friendly and kind. However, they were hampered by the language barrier, I think. The announcements the cabin crew made in German and English were not bad, but I suspect they were learned by heart and showed the full extent of their foreign language repertoire. Even so, that’s still better than the cockpit crew – their language output was simply incomprehensible, even in Italian. What strikes me as being slightly odd about this flight, is that the catering was very clearly not Lufthansa branded, even though the flight is operated as a wet lease.