Review of Air Dolomiti flight from Linz to Frankfurt in Economy

Hi there,

wow it has been a whole eternity since my last flight report - still I haven't forgotten you!
A ton of things have been going on, especially aviationwise. Achieved Miles & More frequent traveller status which made travelling more enjoyable. Oh yeah and more importantly I became a pilot and was given the lucky chance of joining a great German-Turkish leisure carrier where I got my hands on the Boeing 737, as a wonderful exciting very first airliner to fly!

What to expect here?

I will keep it briefer and won't document every single aspect of my journey… I don't really care much about looks of boarding cards, … any longer.
 
1st flight for me on Air Dolomiti
1st flight for me from Linz
1st ever flight-report featuring Linz

Air Dolomiti is the italian regional subsidiary airline of Lufthansa Group. On June 27th, 2021 they started their operation to/from Linz airport, so I was one of the first passengers on this route. Pre-covid Lufthansa CityLine served Linz with E-195 as well.

the journey

Actually I am from Vienna, but have always wanted to try out our regional airports - before they eventually might close down one day :(
So I hopped on a comfortable double-decker westbahn.at train and just about 1 hour later arrived at main station Linz.

 From there I took a ~20 minute bus ride to the airport.

Not so much going on in the arrivals area. 4 flights on the arrival board is actually a lot for LNZ.
I believe Air Dolomiti to FRA is the only scheduled air service (Lufthansa code-share) at this time. The rest most certainly are charter flights.

Got some time to spend, so I went upstairs to the free observation deck - no security check required.
Daily SmartLynx Cargo A321 freighter hanging out on the apron and waiting for its night time return to Leipzig (DHL hub). 

Checked-in already in advance and no bag to drop, so I skipped the check-in counter(s) and walked straight to security.
At LNZ airport security is outsourced to G4S and - like very often - not done by the airport operator itself.

A little marketplace are right after the security checkpoint. Prices actually were quite decent for an airport - comparable to a gas station.

Nice, light-flooded gate area! Love the feeling of being right in the middle of the airport.
Apparently just Gate 1 in use.
I missed power outlets to charge my phone, so I had to conserve energy.

I believe the lounge still was closed. Nevertheless there has never been access for FTL economy passengers in Linz.

Arrival of her beauty! Absolutely love their colours and corporate identity. The inbound flight appeared to be quite full, my outbound however had <20 pax.

Air Dolomit runs 15 Embraer E-195 jets. The majority of the fleet always flew for DLA, some few however joined later and had their "previous life" with Augsburg Airways (ceased ops 2013) and LH Regional.

Boarding literally was an enjoyable sunny afternoon stroll.

Like on every airline I know they will offer you desinfection wipes upon boarding.
Condition of cabin was pretty good. Seat back really hard and not comfortable for longer durations.

Got myself a window seat in the emergency exit row, so nothing to complain about legroom.
Safety briefing of flight attendant about the overwing exit was disappointing for my standards. Kind of "You are sitting next to the emergency exit. Here you will find some information [points to safety card]. ok?"
I personally put a lot of value on such safety relevant procedures and would expect a passenger briefing to be properly executed.

V1, Rotate… now that is PERFECTLY times screenshot of a webcam that updates only once a minute.
Liftoff roughly after 900 meters.

Departure out of Runway 26 via LIDSI 1W - so pretty straight forward
Landing at Runway 25L

Flight path crossed a cold front which resulted in shaky conditions during the entire journey. Therefore fasten seatbelt signs were not switched off.
Didn't try out their onboard-wifi service, sorry. I cannot rate this rather than giving average points.
In my opinion the worlds-greatest entertainment is my window! On this trip the view was restricted as we spent much time in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions).

Eventually 2 flight attendants came through the aisle and handed out bottles of water. That commenced and completed service in economy class.

After landing at FRA we taxied to remote parking stand V116, deboarding was performed via stairs and a bus.