LOT Polish Airlines is believed to be considering flights between Budapest and Zagreb as it attempts to build a hub in the Hungarian capital. According to Poland's "Pasazer" portal, the airline is also likely to introduce, as previously reported, services to Belgrade, Seoul, Prague and Sofia, in addition to the previously scheduled Brussels and Bucharest. LOT will hold a press conference in Budapest on Wednesday where it is expected to announce its network expansion. The new routes are set to launch in September. LOT will become one of the main hub airlines at Budapest Airport, with the investment also opening new connection opportunities for other European markets, which in turn will advance passenger flows through Budapest.
The launch of the potential new service would mark the resumption of flights between Budapest and Zagreb after five years. Qatar Airways previously maintained services between Doha and the Croatian capital via Budapest with fifth freedom rights to sell tickets between Hungary and Zagreb. The former Hungarian national carrier Malev maintained up to eighteen weekly flights between the two cities prior to its demise in 2012. LOT is ultimately targeting business passengers wanting to travel between European capital cities, as well as vital onward connections, including the carrier’s pivotal long haul routes from Budapest to New York and Chicago. LOT currently serves Zagreb from Warsaw twice per day.
Wizz Air, which is Budapest's busiest airline and has received subsidies to maintain services from Budapest to a number of capital city airports in the former Yugoslavia, warned last week of LOT's financial state and noted it is ready to rescue passengers should the Polish carrier collapse. LOT's CEO, Rafał Milczarski, responded by saying, "The information provided by Mr Jozsef Varadi [Wizz Air CEO] concerning alleged problems at LOT Polish Airlines is very out of date, as it was relevant four years ago. LOT is the most dynamically growing airline in Europe, which, in the last four years, has profitably increased its number of destinations from 41 to 111".
Makes sense. We will see.
ReplyDeleteIf they launch Seoul, they could provide good connections to ZAG.
ReplyDeleteBut they offer ZAG-ICN today already via Warsaw. So whats the use? Reduce WAW?
DeleteThey can provide good connections to Chicago and New York too.
DeleteBut you already have nonstop flight from Seoul to Zagreb.
DeleteLOT offers ORD, NYC, ICN and many other today with excellent connection twice daily via Warsaw. Why the hell do they want to route the passengers via BUD instead?
DeleteIf Hungary pay their presence in BUD, why not to make another hub?
DeleteI think ICN-ZAG market is big enough for both flights via WAV and BUD, along existing KE flights. If anything, ICN-BUD-ZAG flights could further complicate things for EK/FZ connections via DXB.
DeleteLOT does not have capacity at Warsaw. They ordered planes (787) and need to place them somewhere.
DeleteBudapest might be interim solution before the new airport is built (2027-2029), which LOT wants to be main hub not for Poland but for whole Central Eastern Europe. The first phace capacity is estimated at 46mln passangers.
Then the "Budapest hub" would be liquidated.
Have they started building the new airport or is it still in the planning stages?
DeleteStill planning. They unofficially change opening from 2027 to 2029. There were plans to increase capacity at Okęcie but currently stopped.
DeleteI doubt that they lack capacity in Warsaw, but it could have something to do with corporate tax rate which is ridiculously low in Hungary. It's only 9% I believe.
DeleteLOT is state owned company. CEO and CFO would be sacked for doing such tax optimisation.
DeleteOkecie is using max no of slots in certain key hours. They can not add any new slots in theses hours. Additionally Okecie is very close to city centre so night operations are not allowed.
Malev used to fly BUD-ZAG 3 times a day. There is definetely demand.
ReplyDeleteI would assume mostly got transfer passengers.
DeleteWhat equipment did they use?
DeleteProbably EMB, I doubt they will base Q400 in BUD?
DeleteSorry I meant what equipment did Malev use on ZAG route back in the day.
DeleteThey used Saab2000 operated by Moldavian and their own CRJ200.
Deletehttps://flugzeugbilder.de/v3/show.php?id=327647
Thanks. Good aircraft types for this sort of route.
DeleteI think Q400 woulb be perfect for ZAG and BEG routes, but we will see soon.
DeleteЕ-120 was used by Malev.
DeleteThey used Jumbolino too.
DeleteMalev never operated the Jumbolino (Bae 146) unless you are confusing it with F70.
DeleteI think they will fail in Budapest
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteI don't understand why Wizz Air sees LOT as a competitor in BUD. It's not as if they transport the same passengers.
ReplyDeleteWizz generally dislikes all competition.
DeleteIf they can offer good connections to New York, it could work. Makes more sense then going all the way eastwards to Warsaw.
ReplyDeleteCan they launch all those European routes with a single Embraer?
ReplyDeleteNisam siguran da znaju sta rade. Izgeda su zagrizli veci zalogaj nego sto mogu da progutaju. Nabavili su i porucili veliki broj sirokotrupaca pa sad ne znaju sta ce s njima.
ReplyDeleteLOT's official explanation for growing from BUD is that they have no space anymore at Warsaw.
Deletenonsense..
DeleteSta je glupost?
Deleteofficial explanation is nonsense
DeleteSta je besmisleno,argumenti? Da su znali sta rade mislis da bi otvarali bazu u Budimpesti bez razvijene regionalne mreze?
DeleteI highly doubt they don't have space anymore at Warsaw. With BUD is another story, and if Hungary gov. pay some costs to cover looses, they dont need regional network at the moment. Btw, BUD is actually big market and can sustain some long haul by itself.
DeleteSa 50% LF na sirokotrupcima trebace malo vece subvencije:) I da,jel ono beose zabranjene subvencije u EU ili to vazi samo za AS?
DeleteWho is talking about AS? :)
DeleteA da bas i neznaju sta rade evo informacije koja se pojavila danas
Deletehttps://www.aviatica.rs/za-sada-nista-od-letova-izmedju-beograda-i-budimpeste/
Ti si spomenuo subvencije a na svim forumima AS je sinonim za subvencije pa ih zato spomenuh. A da,da ne zaboravim i gladne poreske oveznike:)
DeleteI don't know what is the source of that information, as LOT will have a press conference on Wednesday, where they will announce their expansion. Aviatica hasn't given any explanation on how they got to that information, as far as we know. Furthermore, the route is still shown on BEG seasonal timetable on their website.
DeleteI'm surprised no airline has stepped in to fly this route for so long.
ReplyDeleteBut which airline could?
DeleteAirCroatia flew on this route :D
DeleteOU for example.
DeleteOU is not able to experiment too much. Wizz 320´s are too big. So there is no business case. It can be flown twice daily with Q400 or smaller. But there is no airline able to do that.
Delete@9.15 for like a day :D
DeleteTrue they operated just one single flight.
DeleteWhat about the little airline that flies OSI ZAG, why didn't they fly to BUD? Their capacity is quite good.
DeleteI agree with thw anove statement. Trade Air is using the Let 410 on its Osi-Zag flights. I also see that it also utilizes the L410 on some Osi to some coastal cities. But then I think that this aircraft type wouldn't be able to handle some of the luggage people carry from the long haul flights. The L410 may be too small for that then. Any thoughts?
DeleteOU and LO could cooperate seeing as they are both Star members.
ReplyDeleteLO could buy OU the way things are going.
DeleteThey said last year they would focus on Balkan cities which are hubs for Star Alliance members.
DeleteATH is a big Star Alliance hub in the Balkans but LO doesn't fly there at all.
DeleteI think LO with their predatory tactics is trying to bite more than it can chew and it might end in tears...
Just my2cents
So, ZAG-BUD makes more sense than BEG-BUD.
DeleteIf LO has enough money to burn both ZAG and BEG make sense.
DeleteLast anon, based on what have you concluded that?
DeleteI'm anon 10:16, my comment was referring to anon 10:00.
Delete^^
DeleteI am basing my assumption on the fact that if you do not have to worry about things like load factors and yields most routes start to make sense. LO in BUD apparently is little concerned about these things so both BEG and ZAG flights do make sense.
DBV-BUD would be good, seasonally!
DeleteThis would be good!
ReplyDeleteHope it's daily. An evening departure from Budapest and morning departure from Zagreb would be ideal, also for business.
ReplyDeleteGood airline. If they launch this flight and it is daily, we would see LOT planes in ZAG three times per day.
ReplyDeleteLOT has grown enormously in Croatia over the past few years (from Poland of course). Would be nice to see them from Budapest as well.
ReplyDeleteLinija tramvajka ispod 2x dnevno je promasaj u startu.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite interested to see if these will be announced. So many rumors about their BUD flights. Announcement finally on Wednesday so let's see.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteWhat about SPU
DeleteVrsar?
DeleteIf they keep growing in Budapest then it will be really bad news for OS. They are already struggling financially.
ReplyDeleteNobody cares about OS, they got more than enough in ex-yu in last 20 years.
DeleteThat was my point, that OS will suffer because of this.
DeleteThe more the merrier.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to see this route from Zagreb. Hope it happens.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteTend to agree with Wizz with about LOT, unrelated to this route but just in general.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteHow did QR perform on BID-ZAG?
ReplyDeleteThat sector really wasn't a priority for them. They flew 3 times per week at unfavorable times - middle of the day.
DeleteThey used the A320 right?
DeleteYes
DeleteActually it was mix of A320 and A321.
DeleteNo, it was exclusively A320.
DeleteMust have been the shorted inter European flight with a luxurious product :D
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uMt49hrb3I
Lets wait until we hear ir on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteEncouraging news for Zagreb, hope they launch it.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how LOT is doing financially? Can;t find their figures anywhere
ReplyDeleteProfit in 2017 PLN 354 million.
DeleteThat's about 85 million euros.
DeleteNot bad at all.
DeleteIn 2018 just PLN 209 mln so around EUR 50 mln. In 2019 it might be worse as MAXes can't be used and some 787 still issues with engines.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteThe 737 MAX issue is definitely going to drag on in 2020.
LO will either have to scale back expansion or lease (very expensive) interim capacity from ACMI providers. And at the same time continue to fly older, less fuel efficient aircraft while their competitors fly A320NEOs.
LOT has (half) of ACMI provider Regional Jet which is currently hiring Embraer pilots and plans to lease more CRJ and ATR (for SAS in Stockholm) as well
DeleteIsn't LOT going to sue Boeing for the MAX?
DeleteEven if they do it does not help much. They are fixed to Boeing. If Max will be out of the market (more issues were found lately) LOT would have to switch to 737 (less efficient) or move to Airbus (wait very long for deliveries and overpay as many airlines might want to switch to Airbus). They can further develop with ACMI but prices went up and quality of these planes is terrible.
DeleteHope it's daily.
ReplyDeleteZAG really needs these flights to keep growth alive in winter.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the flying time between BUD and ZAG?
ReplyDeleteQatar Airways had it scheduled at 55 minutes duration.
DeleteIf they do launch these ZAG and BEG flights from BUD, I do hope they stick. I just don't see how it will work, especially if it's daily.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteA onda B92 izmiksa 2 vesti i nastane ovo:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/svet.php?yyyy=2019&mm=07&dd=29&nav_id=1571521
:)
Don't know concerning BUD-ZAG flights, but LOT won't fly from BUD to BEG any sooner.
ReplyDeletehttps://beg.aero/eng/seasonal
DeleteLook for Budapest
LOT still needs to confirm if BUD-BEG is cancelled. If true, it could mean Air Serbia will finally grow long haul network and LOT might not need that competition right now. Normal airlines are starting to firm up and publish their schedule for next summer long haul services but JU doesn't seem to be in rush to be in that league.
DeleteCancelled? You Cant cancel something that Was not scheduled.
DeleteBut you can cancel something that was planned.
Deletejust got burned buddy.
We'll just have to wait for Wednesday and LOT press conference.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteNew routes have already been published, Belgrade, Sofia, Prague ( weird move as ryanair and CSA do plenty of flights daily) Bucharest, brussels, Seoul and stuttgart.
DeleteThey just put Budapest-Seoul on sale.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Three times per week. Replaces ORD.
DeleteORD is cancelled_
DeleteORD is not cancelled (yet), just became summer seasonal.
DeleteWith PRG-ICN year round just up the Danube BUD-ICN doesn't make much sense.
DeleteThis whole thing don't make much sense.
DeleteYou mean just down the Danube. But you are aware that Prague is not on the Danube, right?
DeleteOrd became seasonal not cancelled and prague is not on danube and way way away to have any impact on these routes that's like comparing cdg and lhr routes. Budapest is one of the most visited cities in EU plus thousands of expats living there from all round the world. LOT better move in before someone else.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete