LOT Polish Airlines has announced plans to expand services from its Warsaw hub to several markets in the former Yugoslavia over the upcoming summer season, which begins in late March, in a bid to strengthen its presence in the Balkan region. Almost all of LOT’s destinations in the former Yugoslavia will see frequency growth, with exception to Podgorica and Skopje. Zagreb will remain the most frequent service with thirteen weekly rotations, up from twelve the previous summer. It will be followed by Belgrade with eleven to twelve weekly flights, depending on the month, resulting in one to two additional weekly flights each month.
Operations to Ljubljana will run ten to eleven times per week depending on the month, up from between one to three weekly rotations. Services to Sarajevo, which are subject to subsidies by the local tourism authority, will also grow between two to three times per week for a daily rotation. Although the Polish carrier is popular with transfer passengers flying between North America and the former Yugoslav markets, the airline also expects increased point to point demand. The carrier has scheduled its Embraer fleet on all services to the former Yugoslavia, with exception to two flights to Podgorica in April, which will be operated by the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and B737-800 aircraft respectively, as well as a single Skopje rotation in May which will be run by the MAX 8. However, equipment changes and swaps are highly likely.
The carrier’s growth in the former Yugoslavia comes on the back of its 2024 – 2028 strategy, which aims to boost the company’s revenues, fleet size, passenger numbers and destination network. Under the strategy, LOT Polish Airlines’ network will see the launch of almost twenty new scheduled destinations over the four-year period, including short, medium and long-haul routes, as well as frequency growth on existing services. This year, LOT added several new destinations to its network, including Tenerife, Athens, Oradea, Riyadh, Tashkent, Lyon and Larnaca. It has already announced the launch of Lisbon, Reykjavik and Malta for next year.
Modest but growth nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteLJU and SJJ keep winning in 2025 ig
DeleteGood airline!
DeleteUp to 11 more flights per week. Maybe not that modest even though only temporary for the summer season.
DeleteWhy the decrease in Skopje? :(
ReplyDeleteLoads could be impacted by Air Baltic.
DeleteIt's just for two months
DeleteThere is air Baltic in other markets and they didn't decrease flights.
DeleteWonder if Lufthansa is the reason why LO is not increasing SKP?
Delete7pw is good enough since all traffic is conecting passangers. Ohrid needs more flights since the Polish tourist market is becoming big in Macedonia
DeleteThey planned Ohrid last year from Radom and then cancelled it.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/05/lot-shelves-new-podgorica-and-ohrid.html
It would be still daily and double daily once a week, the decrease is in June when there were 9 weekly flights last summer for the first time, and in August as well.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteLO is on a roll everywhere in Europe! Nice to see.
ReplyDeleteI can’t believe LOT did not fly to Athens and Larnaca until this year and does not fly to Lisbon and Malta yet. Quite crazy for such a large airline from such a big market such as Poland.
ReplyDeleteAthens and Lisbon are really suprises. But Malta and Larnaca are not so big and important.
DeleteA3 had the market covered by itself and LO wasn't in a condition to fight. It now is on a much stronger financial footing.
DeleteThe market has grown too and SKY express also launched WAW-ATH.
They used to fly to LCA for decades until covid hit. They took their time resuming it because Wizz Air stepped in and went crazy on the LCA-Poland market.
DeleteAnon 09.06 you are right, LCA is not big and important which is why Cyprus welcomed almost as many passengers as all of Croatia despite have 4 times fewer inhabitants.
LO also announced SKG, LYS and KEF flights.
LO used to fly both to LCA and ATH in the past. My biggest surprise is KEF by LO.
DeleteI found it amazing that LOT flew to LJU and SKP year round but they did not fly to ATH even seasonally until recently
Delete10:01 In Icelandic supermarkets, on self service tills, you can choose between three languages - Icelandic, English and Polish. Almost every single person doing the service job is POLISH! What is a surprise? What do you know about the topic that these flights surprised you?? Nonsense comments.
DeleteBecause Wizz also operates on this route.
DeleteSo what?
DeleteWhat is total population of Iceland? What is percentage of Polish minority? Do math and analyze it.
Delete23000 Poles lives in Iceland. This is roughly 130 full A320s. Most of the people go home at least twice/three times a year. There are tons of Poles who come to do season jobs and are not part of above statistics. We also speak about the country where flying and shopping for duty free is more profitable over just buying alcohol and cigarettes in Iceland. Iceland is a very specific topic, and you need to be aware of Iceland, as well as aviation in order to understand. If you are - you wouldn't be surprised. If you are not, than use Google, instead of being surprised. Have fun, I am heading to the beach 🏖️
Delete11:57 Man, if you don't know, you just don't know. No doubt it's an EX-YU portal where people who know the least pretend to know the most. Part of the "culture" I guess 😎
DeleteAlong with all above, Iceland is one of the most exotic places you can visit in Europe! Iceland has about 3 milion tourists annually.
DeleteW6 has 14 weekly departures from Poland to Iceland during the summer months with mixture of A321/A321NEO. You really think that there is no room for few weekly flights extra with LOT?
DeleteOut of those 14 weekly W6 flights to KEF only 4 are from Warsaw. And coincidentally LOT scheduled their flights the same days as W6. W6 may have the advantage on price but LOT will get some transfer fliers.
DeleteSolid strategy by LOT to capture more transfer passengers heading to North America. They have very competitive pricing compared to Lufthansa or Austrian Airlines.
ReplyDeleteThe Ljubljana upgrades are fantastic
ReplyDeleteThey are fantastic for all cities they are increasing.
DeleteMore so for LJU!
DeleteI hope the subsidies for Sarajevo mean more long term growth and not just short-term boosts. This region desperately needs better connectivity without relying on hubs outside Europe.
ReplyDeleteLOT’s Embraers are perfect for thee routes.
ReplyDelete* these
Delete+1
DeleteBelgrade is finally getting closer to daily double flights.
ReplyDeleteHopefully in 2026 or 2027.
DeleteJU will soon have trouble competing with LO.
DeleteYes of course it is always JU that will have the problem according to commentators here. Meanwhile they are killing it on the Krakow route.
DeleteThey are increasing to 4 pw in summer season.
DeleteGreat to see LOT expanding its reach, but why so few flights operated by the Boeing 737 MAX 8?
ReplyDeleteGood to see them growing
ReplyDeleteAny plans for them to restore their Budapest plans and start those ex-Yu flights they wanted to?
ReplyDeleteNo they don't. I read an interview with someone from BUD airport recently and they said the LOT short haul base was just there because they could not get slots in Warsaw.
DeleteThanks. Pity
DeleteSurprised they can't grow Podgorica with and transfers
ReplyDeleteIt is not always about performance. Warsaw has slot constraints. It is likely they could
DeleteLast year they cancelled planned new Radom-Podgorica route
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/05/lot-shelves-new-podgorica-and-ohrid.html
Can't wait for them to get the E2 or A220!
ReplyDeleteThey already took delivery of a few E2s :) they send it some time to ex-Yu cities.
DeleteOnly 3;
DeleteThey have pending order of 50+
I think they would have success to many EX YU capitals from Krakow too.
ReplyDeleteČudno je da Skoplje kontinuirano tone. Mora postojati razlog za to. Svaka čast za Sarajevo!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is strange that Skopje is continuously sinking. There must be a reason for that. Congratulations for Sarajevo!!!
ReplyDeleteHopefully their flight to Larnaca will not effect AirSerbia share of connecting passengers to Europe as more than 50% of passengers are connecting everytime when I flown the rout
ReplyDeleteThey must add WAW-OMO in the future though. It would be the perfect route for OMO, as it would attract both Polish Međugorje pilgrims and transfer passengers.
ReplyDelete