The D.I was the first locally designed fighter aircraft to be adopted into the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ("Luftfahrtruppen"). It was manufactured both in-house and under license by a number of subcontractors. In 1917, the D.I entered Austro-Hungarian service and saw active operations in the final years of the First World War; it was commonly used for aerial reconnaissance missions, as many fighter units continued to prefer using the German-built Albatros D.III conducting air superiority operations. Following the end of the conflict, it was adopted by the Hungarian Air Force, the Royal Romanian Air Force and the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.