Review of Air France Hop flight Rome → Lyon in Economy

torniamo a casa !

I one of these people that just love Italy and this time I am going to take you to… Roma!

As we have been flying more often Air France and KLM, we trend to choose a SKyteam alliance over others, especially over low-cost airlines as the difference sometimes is minimum. 

This is not my first time in Rome but what a beautiful city!

Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 132
Status earned: 5 XP 

When you fly with Air France, you are entitled to 1 bag in the cabin, adding my extra luggage allowance as I am a Skyteam elite member, we had an allowance 1 bag of 23kgs in the hull.


Air France app is quite comprehensive, you can easily navigate through options, travel tips, and of course your bookings and the service you will have on board.. Of course, like many others, the app offers you the possibility to check in online and get your boarding pass.

Prior to flying you can also download the Air France Play app that entitles you to download (and unlimited when you have the elite status) newspapers and magasines and I must say their section in English is good.

As all of the Air France Hop flights; you can't choose your seat at booking, regardless of your Skyteam membership status. However you can during check-in, which I did, based on the cabin map provided:

AT ROMA FIUMICINO LEONARDO DA VINCI AIRPORT

We got to the airport by train, but not the Leonardo Express, but with the regular Treno Regionale; as our accomodation was closer to Roma Trastevere station than Roma Termini.

The journey was ok, Less than 30 min.

We arrived at the airport and headed to the building of the Terminal allocated to the domestic departures… 

Check in was smooth, as Elite Skyteam members we used the Priority lanes to do so. The lady at the desk was very professional.

The duty free section is a bit poor at the Terminal 1 and 2 buildings (Gates B, C and D).. Terminal 3 (gates E) has been refurbished lately and is much to the standards of an international chic airport.

Roma airport is currently building the new Pier A that will most likely be used for european destinations.

Most of the flights were of Alitalia but two gates dedicated to Air France: one for the flights to Paris and one for the flight to Lyon. 

on board the E190

Our Bird at gate 411 (B27)

Aircraft: Embraer E190STD
Registration: F-HBLK
Engines: 2x CFM34
Age: 1 Year
Layout: Y100
Observation: the last E190 received in the -now- old Hop! livery.

The AvGeek bit
This unit is one of the 17 E190s of Air France Hop. Like all of these E190s; they were launched by former Regional airline.
HOP! Air france is the subsidiary of Air france for its domestic routes and neighbouring european cities. It was founded in 2013 as a merge of 3 regional airlines operating for Air France : Britair, Regional and Airlinair. These three airlines were struggling to have a good efficiency (just 60% of the seats in average were sold) and so Air France decided to group them under a single brand. Airlinair used to be an all ATR airline, Regional an all Embraer (145 and 170/190) and Britair an all Bombardier airline (CRJ 200, CRJ 700 and CRJ 1000). 

Captain made the usual pre-flight annouce for this flight
We started push back soon after, the crew made the safety briefing in French, English and also Italian, which was impressive.

We started taxiing next to Terminals 2 before reaching the runway 34L   The cabin was super new and shiny with leather seats, reclining and adjustable head rests and the pitch seemed generous.

The crew started very shortly after take off to serve us food, even before 10,000 feet and the seat belt signal being switched off. I chose coffee and the cake as complimentary drinks.

We approached Lyon Saint Exupery arport after another 40 min of flights and made our way to the final on the runway 18L


The landing was very very smooth, so congrats to the captain!

AT LYON SAINT EXUPERY AIRPORT

 As every Air France Hop flight, we arrived at the regional pier of Terminal 2, dedicated only to Air France Hop!.