Bus to the plane?!
 

On the bus now waiting for a ride to my flight to MXP. First time since LY left te old terminal that I can remember using a bus gate instead of a jet bridge on LY. I might expect it for the LCCs or even UP but not here. Is this in fact a rare occurrence or did I just get lucky in the past? (Took this same flight a month ago and there was a jet bridge).

Rare occurrence

I will say I was ticked off to see an UP plane at the jet bridge while I was on the bus.

It's based on the constraints of the airports. With delays and inability to use other gates, in order to prevent further delays, they use bus gates for mainline planes, regardless of legacy carrier/LCC status

It could also be that the plane was parked in a remote location for a reason (it just went through maintenance, had a long layover, etc) and LY didn't the expenses of tolling it to a jetway.

I have had bus rides of more than 10 minutes in TLV airport already. Not a very common occurrence, but it does happen to all airlines.

I don't think it's that it was simply parked far away, as there are rules in the airport regarding bus gates. I don't believe the airline can decide when to use the bus - I think it's just the airport based on operations. (I could be wrong, but what are the chances of that! :p)

On my last 4 trips on Alitalia we were bussed both going and coming back.
I am flying with them tommorrow and fully expect the bus again.

I don't think that it is an operational issue but rather a question of money and possibly contributing to their lower cost structure.

By the way, the same thing happens in Rome. Busses all over the place.

An airline may choose buses only in general. But once an airline hasn't chosen that route, it becomes operational versus each airline choosing for any given flight how they'd like to deal with it.

Just landed on an overnight from MXP and again got the bus. MXP is getting the "up" treatment with fares that are 4x the UP fares. At least if they made MXP an "up" destination, I'd get the crappy bus with lower fares!

I would suggest that you got lucky this time. A sojourn across any active airport ramp makes for enjoyable plane spotting and observation of ground services. The only drawbacks, IMO, are for the physically challenged and those tardy to the bus.

An interesting angle. But when I get off the aircraft, especially in TLV, I want to be out as soon as I can. That's one benefit of flying business class or paying extra for first rows. This benefit washes out when a bus gate is used.

Shuly