LOT Polish Airlines will continue to grow its operations to the former Yugoslavia in 2020 by adding two new routes to its network. The Polish national carrier will commence a one weekly seasonal service from Warsaw to Rijeka from March 29, making it its seventh route to Croatia following flights from Warsaw to Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik, Pula and Zadar, as well as from Krakow to Dubrovnik, with the latter launched this year. According to the “Pasazer” portal, the new Rijeka service will operate each Sunday with an Embraer E195 aircraft and run until the end of the 2020 summer season, in late October. Tickets are yet to be put on sale.
Commenting on its growing operations in Croatia, LOT recently said, "Croatia is becoming more and more popular among our passengers each year and is one of the most common holiday destinations in the Mediterranean basin for Polish travellers. We are convinced that, as a result of LOT's enhanced offer, Poles will be even more willing to visit Croatia, as well as plan a longer vacation or weekend trip". The airline codeshares on its services out of Warsaw with fellow Star Alliance member Croatia Airlines. The Polish carrier has been linked to its Croatian counterpart’s prvatisation process on several occasions.
LOT will also commence daily flights between its hub in Budapest and Belgrade starting March 30. Services will run on a daily basis with the E195 jet. “The launch of new international flights from Hungary marks another stage of market consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe, of which LOT is currently becoming an undisputed leader”, the airline said. In addition to Belgrade, LOT is introducing services from the Hungarian capital to Sofia, Prague and Stuttgart. “We also operate flights to each of those destinations from Warsaw and are very pleased with the results. Our analyses showed that those destinations have a huge potential to become successful in Hungary, too”, the company noted.
Impressive growth for them in Croatia. Pretty much each year they add a new route. Would be great if they bought OU.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know which routes will the BUD-BEG-BUD flights connect onto?
ReplyDeleteNew York three times per week, Brussels, London and I think Prague plus Krakow in one direction, the other way can be covered via WAW.
DeleteI wish they would increase BEG from 11 to 14 but there are no more slots.
Not bad at all. Great having London since its quite expensive from BEG.
DeleteJU better up their game on the New York route.
DeleteWell JU is already full in summer so LO will be carrying spillover passengers. I think they will affect OS the most as they are quite vulnerable these days.
DeleteAlso note that London in LCY so that's great.
Man BEG is really on fire!
DeleteThey have very good fares and schedule to London (City)
DeleteBEG-BUD 15.45-16.25
BUD-LCY 17.15-19.00
LCY-BUD 09.30-13.00
BUD-BEG 13.50-14.35
LO expansion will lower prices for JU's JFK flight.
DeleteThat is great news for us.
Exactly but JU already has a great point of sales in the US, I think they will have to compete more with LH and others which is great. More one stop options.
DeleteLOT offers some great fares from Belgrade to Asia too (via Warsaw). They are often the cheapest option.
DeleteLOT has very competitive prices for North America and Asia too.
DeleteNot as good as Ukraine International but close.
I don't understand why they overlook SJJ. I'm sure they would get nice feed to US and Canada.
ReplyDeleteThey should start Sarajevo and Pristina year round and/or Tivat, Ohrid seasonally.
DeleteThere are a number of expansion opportunities for them in ex-Yu from Krakow too.
DeleteSarajevo is a price sensitive market served by an extremely expensive airport.
DeleteWhy not Mostar?
DeleteSarajevo isn't an expensive airport, that's a story of the past. The only way it can get any cheaper is by abolishing the development tax that makes every non-LCC passenger pay money for the development of Mostar and Tuzla airports. Overall it's still not a big price compared to other ex-yu airports, especially capital cities.
DeleteIsn't the tax €34? That's a lot compared to BEG's €18 or ZAG's €9.
DeleteNow they are only missing Brac and Osijek in Croatia :D
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if they start Brac in 2021.
DeleteI wonder if the BUD flights will affect their loads to WAW from BEG.
ReplyDeleteDoubt it as they couldn't add more flights to BEG because of congestion, that's why their 11th weekly was added in September after the busy summer period. Also these days their E95 is extremely common, a week about they even sent the B737-700!
DeleteCould their expansion in BUD be a reason why they are no longer interested in OU? It makes no sense to have two bases in such a small area.
ReplyDeleteNo one is interested in OU - the Govt missed that privatisation boat 3 years ago
DeleteThey already had a base in BUD when they announced their interest in OU last year. I think they just realised they would burn too much money.
DeleteI still don't think LOT is financially stable enough to take over any airline.
DeleteErm LO is profitable.
DeleteI fear their soul interest would be to feed Warsaw.
Delete*sole
DeleteAgree. LO would probably remove most Airbuses and switch them to Embraers to fly to just a few European destinations. All Scandinavia would be routed via Poland.
DeleteAA owns LO's a** on ORD-BUD. LOT retreated so quickly. LOT won't be able to defend BUD as a long haul hub from any competition.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that they have over an hour turnaround time on the new BUD-BEG flights. Not common for short haul flights in Europe anymore.
ReplyDeleteLOT now serves the most points in ex-Yu of the European legacies. More than Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss...
ReplyDeleteBig home market plus excellent transfer options.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that 5 years ago this airline had to temporarily suspend ZAG and BEG due to financial difficulties.
ReplyDeleteLot is a good airline and it's great to see them expanding in ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteLO has grown so well lately not just in ex-Yu but everywhere. Good work.
DeleteThere is not much good about them.
DeleteWhy? What is bad?
DeleteI have only had good experiences with LOT. Nice to see them expanding in the region.
DeleteI'm not so sure that daily flights from BUD to BEG on such a large aircraft will work out.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very short flight so there won't be many costs.
DeleteIt's a long-term investment, they probably don't expect it to work in the next two, three years until they expand their BUD operations.
DeleteI also don't think this route is viable. We will see. Filling almost 800 seats per week each way on this route won't be easy.
DeleteIf they are expanding because of the transfer passengers strategy they should establish a connection to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteIf SJJ was more proactive maybe they would. You can't just sit with your hands crossed and expect airlines to flock to you while charging sky high prices and limiting them with work hours because you don't want to pay people to work a night shift.
Delete+100
DeleteWhy isn't Croatia Airlines flying to Warsaw or anywhere else in Poland?
ReplyDeleteWith what? Dumbo?
DeleteCroatia Airlines isn't covering much more important markets, let alone Poland.
Delete"It's too early for that".
DeleteWhy isn't Air Serbia flying to Warsaw or anywhere else in Poland?
DeleteJU completely surrendered the Polish market to LO.
DeleteNo chance for Air Serbia to be back to WAW. After LOT started flying nearly twice daily to BEG with fair starting from 49€ no space for competition. And most of Air Serbia passengers use to be transit passengers from Skopje, Podgorica, Beirut, Larnaca, Ljubljana and Zagreb now LOT flies to all these destination directly and some of them twice daily!
DeleteSo what if LO flies nonstop to those destinations? ME and AF fly non-stop from BEY to CDG yet JU carriers a lot of transfers via Belgrade.
DeleteAlso in what universe is LO €49 to WAW? I travel regularly on this route and unless you book months in advance flights are around €150 to €250.
Just to join previous comment, I don't understand why they skip SJJ: significant number of Polish tourists visit Bosnia & Herzegovina (more than 40.000 in 2018). Every time I flew from Sarajevo to Budapest for example, planes were full of Poles, obviously using Budapest as connection between Poland and Bosnia (Wizzair, of course).
ReplyDeleteDo they go mostly to Medjugorje or just visiting Sarajevo?
DeleteMedjugorje is probably covered with flights to Croatia.
DeleteI really don't know, majority of those seemed to be young people, I guess they come to Sarajevo. I have flown numerous times this route and Polish language was everywhere (not so hard to recognize Poles :) ) Međugorje is full of Poles as well, but it seems they fly to Croatia and continue to Međugorje and Mostar by tour agencies on buses.
DeleteInteresting stuff. Thanks. If LOT is not interested maybe Wizz could but I think LOT could do well not just because of point to point passengers but transfers too.
Deletebulk of polish tourists to BiH are side trips form croatian vacationers
DeleteIt seems all frequencies on other routes will be kept exactly the same as this summer. No increases.
ReplyDeleteI checked randomily and they start to fly to DBV six weekly at the end of March 2020. I don't think it was the case last year. I tend to think that last year they increased to five weekly at the end of May and to six weekly at the end of June.
DeleteGreat news
ReplyDeleteNe znam zašto BUD-PRG. Lete već FR i OK koliko ja znam, a budući da lete WAW-PRG 3 puta dnevno, nema ni neke prilike za još više transfernih putnika
ReplyDeleteSurprised they didn't introduce BUD-ZAG.
ReplyDeleteI am very glad that after all BEG did not lose air connection with BUD.
ReplyDeleteYes. Good to see these flights won't end when Belavia stops the sector.
DeleteLowest return fares on BUD-BEG route (no checked in luggage) seems to be 120 euros.
ReplyDeleteNot cheap
DeleteActually it wouldn't cost much less to drive. I think it is an acceptable price.
DeleteAir Serbia should codeshare on this route. LOT and JU are codeshare partners after all
DeleteYes, great idea, so they can fill seats of their competition from Budapest.
DeleteI think LO and JU no longer code-share.
DeleteInstead of codeshare, it would be even better if Air Serbia starts BEG-BUD with own metal and forces LOT to cancel. American Airlines did the same and it worked.
DeleteJU already flew BEG-BUD and failed.
DeleteLot didn't have a hub at BUD at that time. Point is to kick Lot out while their new hub is stll weak. Air Serbia can undercut Lot on the route and protect home turf.
DeleteJU should start Krakow (preferably), or Katowice.
DeleteHow many frequencies did JU have to Budapest?
Deletedaily flights at first.
DeleteBUD-BEG planned by LOT gona work as from next March flights to JFK gona be on a daily basis and cheaper than JU. So transit passengers to JFK, BRU and STU gona be the load for the airline.
DeleteFirst of all, they are not going to be daily but three weekly for passengers from BEG. Not all flights connect to their JFK flights.
DeleteMissed opportunities for Croatia and Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteWhat are missed opportunities?
DeleteSure.
DeleteSo missed that JU stoped flying BEG-BUD and INI-BUD as there was no demand.
All or almost all these passengers on BEG-BUD will be transfer
They should start PRN.
ReplyDeleteWe often complain about Skopje but in fact Pristina has a very low presence of legacy airlines. So LOT would be a nice addition.
DeleteTrue very few legacy airlines present. Swiss, Austrian, SAS (seasonal) and Turkish only.
DeleteSeems like only gasto routes make it there.
DeleteStupidity... peoplr should stop flying everywhere. The train connection between Belgrade and Budapest is very good (sure could use some updating to make sure trains could go faster but still...)
Deletelol btw there is currently no train between Belgrade and Budapest because new railways for fast train connection is being built.
DeleteLOT has been carrying out a new business strategy that involves launching new flights and boosting revenue while keeping an eye on every penny spent. And it has worked well for them. Glad to see a place for ex-Yu routes in this strategy.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how profitable all these new routes are for them.
DeleteDidn't work all that well for the on Budapest-Chicago route.
DeleteIf Korean starts ICN-BUD and Delta or American starts JFK-BUD, expensive LOT adventure in Budapest will hit a wall and fail.
DeleteDidn't someone post some numbers here some time ago that LOT is doing really poorly from Budapest?
DeleteAny American Airlines will not work for the flights JFK-BUD as LOT got a preferential status for taxes in the airport. So any American Airlines will be more expensive and not all of them offers intertainment on board.
DeleteBUD is an investment. It is not profitable and will not be profitable for several years to come. It is financed out of profits from WAW. It will take at least three next years to develop BUD into any sort of a hub and before that no profits can be expected.
DeleteDuring that time LO will have to look closely at its expenditures in BUD, so to make sure it losses money in the most effective way, ie. efficiently growing volume. A good sign of that is closing ORD where both fares and lf were very low and replacing it with ICN. For this reason there was no point in defending BUD-ORD against competition from AA. If it were profitable for LO or if LO looked at BUD as at its stronghold, LO would definately defend it the way it now firecely defends KRK-ORD against AA.
LO has an idea of being a primary choice for Central and Eastern Europe pax. For this reason it needs more than one hub, ie. one in the north and one more to the south of that part of Europe. This strategy is based on an assumption that Central and Eastern Europe will grow in wealth. We will see if that succeeds.
Air Serbia had that same idea about BEG. Air Serbia then handed over BEG-WAW to LO on a silver plate during Kondic days but should now, as you said 'firecely defend' BEG-BUD and force LO out at any cost. If new CEO doesn't push for it, they might as well shut down BEG-JFK service and any hope of future long haul expansion and eventually any hope of BEG being a regional hub. LOT is more dangerous that Austrian ever was and this should raise an alarm at both Air Serbia and VINCI. LOT expansion together with Tarom order of 9 ATR72-600, CSA order of A220 and A321XL for return to TATL and Aegean getting closer to widebody order should be a wake up call at Air Serbia. Hello, anybody at home?
DeleteThere will always be leakage of pax that will go from beg indirectly to jfk. It is absolutely normal. If there is no such leakage it means fares for direct flights are too low and most probably the flights are not profitable and should be changed into indirect flights. Whether this leakage is via bud or via fra or via muc or via waw doesnt matter. The key element for yu is whether there will be enough pax that will put convenience above the price. They will upkeep the route.
DeleteLo cannot be effectively deterred by yu from bud-beg. O&d on this route is small and lo will rely on transfers. Lo also has a much deeper pocket.
"Lo cannot be effectively deterred by yu from bud-beg"
Deleteof course it can, AA ORD-BUD just proved it.
"Lo also has a much deeper pocket"
lol, you are not from around here, are you?
Let's not get carried away. LO just started this expensive adventure. FR responded by replacing their own brand with BUZZ in order to lower costs. They said it themselves that BUD is not profitable for them which is logical. LO will need at least a decade to come close to anything resembling a profit in Budapest.
DeleteAlso I find it hilarious how LO has so many cheerleaders on here but JU is constantly attacked for whatever reason there might be. Funny how people on here don't mind LO lobbying for WAW to get a curfew at 23.00 so as to mess up W6's operations there. Naturally LO night flights are long gone at that point. I can only imagine the uproar on here if JU did something like that.
As for BUD-BEG, with the war between FR and W6 going on there is nothing for JU to do there. Let them rather concentrate on market with great potential like KRR, LCA, KBP, TIA... That's where JU's growth will come from and where they can charge higher fares than they could in BUD.
I am sure BUD BEG will be a success. Next year is looking really good and BEG will come close to seven million.
ReplyDeleteDo they still use Dashes on most of their flights to ex-Yu? Or have they started using jet engine planes.
ReplyDeleteBEG is mostly E95
DeleteI think they use mostly Embraers now on all routes.
DeleteDaily is a strong start for a new route.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how they are performing on other routes? SKP, TGD?
ReplyDeleteInteresting developments. Congratulations Croatia! <3
ReplyDeleteLast year, they stepped in VAR too, which shows why JU should return back.
Yesterday, Lauda also are going to launch flights to both VAR and BOJ competing with OS and W6 in VAR. Crazy!
i have heard that the border between Hungary and Serbia must be a nightmare in summer .
ReplyDeleteWaiting times of many hours in scorching sun, to avoid at all costs .
Maybe people will switch to flying because of that ?
Recently they opened a new border crossing so hopefully they reduce some traffic at the main crossing on the highway. Let's pray for the best outcome.
DeleteLO is very popular among eastern europeans out of YYZ. New planes, good service and good prices. Previous years BEG was the exception because of the deal JU had wit AC. With that interline not in place any more it’s going to be interesting next year.
ReplyDeleteToo bad they don’t fly to SJJ. I know YYZ-SJJ is small market but there is not much competition as well. I’m sure other NA locations are not much different.
I am confident that will work BUD-BEG. What I can see here everybody creates his comment from recent situation. LOT plan to open new long-haul fligths from BUD next year. Miami? Los Angeles? Do not forget just launched BUD-ICN.
ReplyDeleteNew long-hauls next year? I nowhere saw that.
DeleteThe LOT's CEO said, that in the future there will be new long-hauls from BUD, even destinations not served from WAW, but never mentioned that it will be in 2020.