I love flying and I love espresso…and news today from Air Dolomiti makes me smile. The Italian carrier, part of Lufthansa Group, is adding espresso machines onboard and will serve illy espresso.
Air Dolomiti will add espresso machines to its fleet of 17 Embraer 195 aircraft, offering complimentary espresso for business class passengers or espresso for purchase in economy class.
Steffen Harbarth, CEO of Air Dolomiti, noted:
“After renewing our interiors and our in-flight service with the introduction of SpazioItaliaBar, we felt it was important to relaunch our Business Class product as well. In addition to the comfort of the new seats, the service offers exceptionally tasty menus, a selection of fine wines and now also the possibility of enjoying an excellent espresso coffee. We are the first Italian airline to offer it at altitude and we are very proud of that.”
Last winter, Air Dolomiti revamped its inflight product, moving to a buy-onboard model in economy class (water and chocolate still free, like other Lufthansa Group carriers). More recently it introduced new ceramic dishes in business class and now espresso onboard.
Pricing has not been specified for the espresso nor a timeline for the installation of the espresso machines.
This is something that seems so common sense and so smart. People around the world love coffee and it seems to me that the small additional weight of an espresso machine has the capacity to create a lot of passenger goodwill. Coffee is one way to the heart and I’d love to see other airlines follow Air Dolomiti’s example.
While many carriers have restored pre-pandemic service levels over the last several months, it is rare to see a new and stepped-up offering compared to pre-pandemic times. Here, Air Dolomiti has achieved that goal with the addition of illy espresso onboard. I look forward to sipping a hot espresso on Air Dolomiti.
(H/T: YHBU)
Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let’s Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.
Do they use water from the tanks for it, or is the espresso machine loaded separately?
A very good question – I hope they use bottled water!
If you drink coffee in Italy you won’t to drink coffee anywhere else. It is that amazing.
I love Italian coffee…but I’ve had amazing coffee in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Guatemala, and other coffee capitals of the world. The Italians may have a corner on style, but not on coffee! ?
@Matthew: Italy probably does not produce a single ounce of coffee. The top coffee producers are Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia and Ethiopia in that order. Guatemala, Peru and other countries have smaller productions as well. What Italians have mastered is the sourcing of the best beans around the world, the roasting process to perfection and of course the build of amazing machines to brew the coffee t perfection at high pressure and high temperature. So yes, you can get amazing coffee in the countries you listed but they have to know how to roast the beans like Italians do and have a espresso machine that has the right pressure and temperature to make a perfect espresso. You have to work vert hard to find a bad espresso in Italy.
Italy absolutely does coffee right. It’s quite disturbing to see Starbucks trying to gain a foothold there. I wish them much failure!
I don’t wish them failure, but what kind of a fool would drink Starbucks in Italy? It’s a sad reflection on the lack of refinement and taste…
I have family in Italy. Italians will probably cross the street to not walk in front of a Starbucks. To give you an idea of how “successful” Starbucks is in Italy, there are close to 3,000 Starbucks stores across Europe and only 11 in Italy. My family and friends share that the Starbucks are full of Chinese tourists that think it is cool to visit a Starbucks store. Good for them. You can get a perfect espresso at any cafe in Italy for €1. That is hard to beat.
Oh, man. I love coffee, and the idea of an espresso machine with Illy coffee already makes my mouth water.
One thing. Do you think the noise will be a distraction?
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