Even as Lufthansa Group places an order for Airbus A220 crossover jets, the group’s Italian regional subsidiary, Air Dolomiti, is in the throes of expanding its fleet of rival Embraer E190s.

Verona-based Air Dolomiti has for some years now operated a feeder service primarily from Italian destinations into Lufthansa’s main hubs at Frankfurt and Munich. The airline currently operates 17 Embraer 195s, plus three E190s and plans to take on a further five of the latter model over the next year.

The first of these 108-seat layout aircraft will arrive in the spring and the new batch will be transferred from another of the Group’s carriers, Lufthansa CityLine. To staff the expanded fleet, Air Dolomiti is hiring new crews for both its Venice and Florence bases.

The larger fleet is expected to lead to the introduction of new routes, as well as the growth of existing sectors, but details of most have not yet been released. Two new routes that have been announced however, are a 6X-weekly Frankfurt-London City Airport codeshare service on behalf of Lufthansa that will start on February 11 and a Frankfurt-Geneva sector.

“The positioning toward Europe has been an evolution of Air Dolomiti's role, which, without losing its identity, has developed a harmonious expansion within the LH Group airlines,” an Air Dolomiti spokeswoman said. 

The airline operates E1 versions of the Brazilian crossover jet. Asked whether Air Dolomiti would consider acquiring E2 variants in future, she said that the airline will be heavily engaged in integrating the new aircraft over the coming year “so all our efforts are concentrated in this very challenging phase.”