LOT Polish Airlines will introduce a total of four new routes to the former Yugoslavia during the 2020 summer season and add extra frequencies on existing services. The carrier will commence flights from Warsaw to Rijeka, Rzeszow to Zadar and from Budapest to Belgrade and Dubrovnik. All of the new services will be maintained on a seasonal summer basis, with exception to flights between the Hungarian and Serbian capitals, which will run throughout the year. The airline will focus on point to point leisure traffic from Poland to Croatia, while its new Budapest flights will draw upon both local demand and transfer passengers utilising its growing operations from the Hungarian capital.
| Route | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Budapest - Belgrade | MAY 27 |
| Rzeszow - Zadar | MAY 30 |
| Budapest - Dubrovnik | JUN 07 |
| Warsaw - Rijeka | JUN 07 |
Click on link for flight details
Commenting on its growing network 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 privatisation process on several occasions, however, following its acquisition of German leisure airline Condor, it is believed to be no longer interested in acquiring shares.
LOT also plans to expand frequencies on some of its existing services in the former Yugoslavia. It will maintain eight weekly flights between Warsaw and Ljubljana, up from seven weekly last year. Operations between the Polish capital and Belgrade will run twelve times per week, up from eleven for the majority of the 2019 summer season. "There is no dominant category of passengers on our Belgrade service. It varies based on the day of the week. Of those transferring through Warsaw, the majority of passengers connect onto flights to Toronto and several points in Western Europe", LOT said. Operations to both Skopje and Podgorica will remain unchanged at six times per week. The carrier noted that although these flights provide opportunities for Polish tourists to discover Macedonia and Montenegro in greater numbers, its primary focus is on transfer passengers, in particular those connecting to the United States, Canada and Scandinavia.
Their expansion in Croatia has been impressive. They now fly to Croatia from Warsaw, Krakow and Rzeszow. Pity the leisure routes are all low frequency though.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense since it is for tourists with tour packages. Perhaps they could increase to two weekly but more than that I don't see a reason.
DeleteThe only airport they are missing in Croatia now is Brac :D
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if they start Brac in 2021.
DeleteWell DBV from WAW is since 28 March six weekly.
DeletePerhaps they should give Krakow – Belgrade a go, twice per week on a seasonal basis. I notice Krakow is quite popular with tour operators in Belgrade but all offer it only through bus service which must be a very tiring and long trip.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI agree.
DeleteIt is not likely JU will start this route so KRK would be great addition in BEG if flown by LO.
Beautiful city with amazing culturale treasure.
JU is planning to add Krakow from the next wave of regional expansion along with Sibiu, Iasi, Cluj Napoca and Odessa.
DeleteWhat Anom 10.37 Said makes a lot of sense, I just wonder of we would need to see major fleet expansion/renewal first
DeleteAnon 10.37 source?
DeleteAnon at 10:37
DeleteSure it does...
It sounds reasonable, anon 10:37.
DeleteMaybe it won't be all of them together but ODS is one of the most serious candidates
There is also Budapest which was postponed due to fleet shortage.
DeleteLove LOT. Great to hear
ReplyDeleteAnother new route to Zadar. Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be an amazing summer with so many new routes, and it is nice to see legacies expanding as well.
DeleteYes, over a million passengers :) LOT with two routes (from Warsaw and Rzeszow)
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/02/zadar-to-handle-million-passengers-in.html
LOT used to fly Warsaw and Gdansk to Zadar, a season or two ago.
DeleteI’m curious to see how BUD-BEG will perform with daily rotation.
ReplyDeleteAnd also if they keep the route at a daily rotation during winter.
DeleteWith Air Serbia competition. Interesting :)
DeleteI think daily in winter would be an overkill especially since an E195 is being used.
Delete@ Mixajlo true but I do hope that succeed because I personally travel a lot between BEG and BUD and this route is perfect for me haha. Interestingly Air Serbia decided not to launch Budapest even though they planned to.
DeleteLack of aircraft
DeleteThey have added new routes to ex-Yu each year for the last 3 or 4 years. Wonder what we might see next from them.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Sarajevo. I don't understand why these airlines overlook SJJ. I'm sure they would get nice feed to US and Canada.
DeleteAlso Sarajevo is Star Alliance territory. I don't get why LOT doesn't give it a try with their Dash. At least seasonally.
DeleteThere are several options in my opinion. Sarajevo and Pristina year round and/or Tivat, Ohrid seasonally.
DeleteA number of expansion opportunities for them in ex-Yu from Krakow too.
Delete@8.48
DeleteExactly because of Star Alliance presence. It is well connected by Lufthansa and Austrian.
Other airports in ex-Yu are also well covered by Lufthansa and Austrian but that didn't stop them.
DeleteYay LJU goes eight weekly. Which day are there two flights?
ReplyDeleteSunday. Strange choice, as both flights are mid-day. Ljubljana badly needs morning outbound and evening inbound and I was hoping LOT will offer that, but unfortunately not.
DeleteYes weird. There is just a couple of hours between the two flights. What was their logic I wonder.
DeleteNot weird, there is a huge transfer traffic to Europe and SE Asia. Also, those flights from WAW have very good transfers from North America. They have a similar timetable for example SOF. Difference is only 3 hours.
DeleteOk I see. That means number of transfers on Sunday is quite large. Are both flights operated by Embraers that day?
DeleteYes
DeleteOne is E190 the other E170/175.
DeleteWhat equipment do they use to ex-Yu capitals – LJU, ZAG. BEG. TGD and SKP?
ReplyDeleteMostly Embraers I think
DeleteThey used to operate 737Max8 on flights to ZAD/DBV and SPU back when they were operational.
DeleteI think they also send B737-800 to Zagreb and Belgrade from time to time but its mostly Embraer aircraft and Dash on some routes.
DeleteIm from ZAG, living in WAW so I fly the route often.
DeleteLately its 90% E195/0, rarely E175. I didnt see the Dash for a few years, but I remember that a few years ago it was mostly Dashes and E170 flying half-empty and I was afraid that they will cancel the route :D. Im flying on next Wed morning so I wonder what plane it will be.
Now its 2x daily and from what I see LF is great, sometimes the plane is full. BTW there are always like 10-15 Koreans on the flight :P.
In March I will fly to BEG so Ill see how that one goes as well.
Do a trip report for us of you can :)
DeleteEhh im not good at writing :P, but ill take some pics and see if I can make something of it
DeleteThey have managed to beat ex-Yu airlines on all routes they had competition. First Air Serbia then Adria. Others didn't even try to compete.
ReplyDeleteBecause the number of transfer passengers they can pick up from BEG and LJU is far greater than the number of passengers JU (and formerly JP) could pick up from WAW due to the size and variety of LOT's network.
DeleteExactly. I think there is little P2P traffic between Warsaw and ex-Yu cities.
DeleteOne thing to keep in mind is that LOT has a perfect fleet to serve ex-Yu markets and can adjust the equipment based on their loads. Something all ex-Yu airlines are unable to do.
Delete@9.04 it is certainly growing.
DeleteI wonder if their transfer loads to ex-Yu cities will be affected by the fact that they have suspended flights to China due to the virus and that fewer people are traveling to other Asian destinations.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think they carried a lot of China transfers to ex-Yu.
DeleteCould their expansion in BUD be a reason why they lost interest in OU?
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame. I think they would have been a good partner.
DeleteI'm really happy Skopje has worked out for them!
ReplyDeleteThey don't have a whole lot of competition for transfer passengers. Just Austrian mostly.
Deleteany route works out from SKP
DeleteAnd Turkish as well
DeleteWhy no BUD ZAG?
ReplyDeleteApparently it was being considered and was a shortlisted route but then they decided not to. Maybe in 2021.
DeleteLO has grown so well lately not just in ex-Yu but everywhere. Good work.
ReplyDeleteLOT and Aegean now serve the most points in ex-Yu of the European legacies. More than Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss...
DeleteIf they are expanding because of the 'transfer passenger strategy' they should establish a connection to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteI think they will launch Sarajevo next year.
DeleteIf SJJ is more proactive maybe they will. You can't just sit with your hands crossed and expect airlines to flock to you.
DeleteSarajevo is a price sensitive market served by an extremely expensive airport.
Delete
Deletenew connections depend on free slots in Warsaw, and those are not enough. The airport currently has very limited development opportunities due to ecological reasons.
greetings from Warsaw ;)
B.
Not surprised they are increasing frequencies. There fares are quite good.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete"The Polish carrier has been linked to its Croatian counterpart’s privatisation process on several occasions, however, following its acquisition of German leisure airline Condor, it is believed to be no longer interested in acquiring shares."
ReplyDeleteNot sure about this. They bought Condor against all "advise" from LH, even if Condor is utterly depended on LH. They better make some plans on how to feed those Condor flights and demonstrate LH that those plans are creditable, otherwise they should plan to close Condor before Christmas. Croatia is currently mainly feeding LH hubs, but could be redirected to feed Condor/LOT. It will not be enough by any means, but it may be a creditble first step to solve their Condor problem.
I'm really surprised Wizz Air hasn't launched more flights from Warsaw to ex-yu.
ReplyDeleteAren’t there slot restrictions at Warsaw Airport?
DeleteBecause they can only carry P2P PAX and there is little demand for that outside of peak summer when Polish tourists go to the Croatian coast.
Deletelol
Delete
Deleteyes there is a problem with free slots, Wizz replaces the A320 with larger a321 to better use the slots. Moreover, Wizz is not welcome at Chopin Airport;) CEO Wizzair complained to the European Commission about the bad practices of the Warsaw airport. According to him, a lot is being done in Warsaw to help LOT Polish airl. He is right because the current government gives a lot of support to state-owned companies. LOT is very important to them.
B.
Yes, and for this reason there is NO discount for volume of traffic at WAW, so LOT that brings moe than 40% of traffic pays for every pax the same amount as for example JU would pay, if it decided to start BEG-WAW (and by the way I hope it does, as more competition is always better). Indeed a true preference for a local carrier.
DeleteDoes anyone know which routes will the BUD-BEG-BUD flights connect onto?
ReplyDeleteLCY, BRU, WAW, KRK and STR.
DeleteNot bad at all. I assume the prices are comoetative. JU will have quite a battle for STR this summer with a good connection via BUD and new flights by Eurowings.
DeleteGreat for London City link too. Best airport in London if you are staying in the city.
DeleteTo JFK 3 times a week. But not the other direction. JFK-BEG is better via WAW.
Delete+ PRG
DeleteIs Podgorica year round or seasonal?
ReplyDeleteYear round. 6 weekly in summer and 4 weekly in winter.
DeleteNot bad at all. Thanks.
DeleteI wonder if the BUD flights will affect their loads to WAW from BEG.
ReplyDeleteDoubt it, they can't really grow in Belgrade as they don't have enough slots in Warsaw. Last year they increased Belgrade in September after busy summer season.
Delete
DeleteThey signed a contract with Azull Brasil aril. on Embraer e195 with 118 seats. 6 years planes will complement the fleet. Some of them to Budapest service. A total of 32, 18 this year, 14 is an option for 2021-22
B.
Big home market plus excellent transfer options. No surprise.
ReplyDeleteGreat news
ReplyDelete5-6 years ago not a single ex-Yu city had flights to Warsaw. And look now. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteLOT is becoming a serious player in ex-Yu.
DeleteBEG got WAW 10 years ago with short break of 6 months in 2016
Deletehttps://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/ekonomija/aktuelno.239.html:239234-Poljski-LOT-ponovo-leti-iz-Beograda
They introduced Belgrade and Zagreb at the same time.
DeleteCongrats, great news!
ReplyDeleteNever used them before. What is their service like?
ReplyDeleteSomeone did a trip report on them recently here.
DeleteFound it. Here you go
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/01/trip-report-lot-london-zagreb-via-warsaw.html
Thank you. They seem quite decent.
DeleteI think ZAG is their top performing route in the region. This year they are sticking to double daily but they might introduce more flights in 2021.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer if they started Krakow or Budapest next year :)
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteTop performing route yet they keep adding flights to BEG from both WAW/BUD?
Delete^ Belgrade has 11 weekly flights to Warsaw, Zagreb has 14.
DeleteLOT top city in exyu is BEG. It will have 19 weekly flights this summer.
DeleteAll these new flight have "human" departure and arrival times. Well done LOT!
ReplyDeleteSadly, WAW is one of worst airports for transfer due to extremely slow and rude border and security check between non-Schengen and Schengen flights. Also, it is very overpriced comparing to most of big European airports. I'm using it often, but trying to avoid whenever I can.
ReplyDeleteThe border and security check is in your words extremely slow and rude and you are still using it often and, what is more, you are paying for it more than you could pay elsewhere (as per your own words, you are overpaying compared to other airports), so in brief you are a true masochist:)
Deleteyes I admit that Chopin Airport (WAW) is a big problem for LOT Polish airl. There is not enough space in the non shengen zone. The easiest way to observe this is during the evening departures from 22pm to 24. Very crowded, not comfortable
Delete:(
B.
Yes, as you say, it is particular crowded between 23pm and 24pm as there are no flights at all during that time, because of the night curfew starting from 23pm.
DeleteAs to period 22pm-23pm, there is a so-called point system in place, and flights are allowed but in a much smaller number than earlier (limited curfew).
If you had been at that airport so often, you would know that non-Schengen zone is indeed crowded but between 11am-17pm, because that is the peak of LOT long-haul flights. Compared to that 22pm-23pm almost nothing happens. Among long-haul only SIN, PKX and DEL departure at that time, so number of pax is much much smaller.
Have a good night:)
Dear B. yeap, but unfortunately LOT via WAW is cheapest and faster option for BEG-WRO that I use often. Only alternatives are MUN or FRA with LH, but I can't get it always.
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