LOT Polish Airlines
IATA LO	ICAO LOT	Callsign LOT
Founded		1 January 1929
Hubs		Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport
Focus cities		* Katowice International Airport * Kraków-Balice Airport * Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport * Copernicus Airport Wrocław * Poznań-Ławica Airport
Frequent flyer program		Miles and More
Member lounge		Executive Lounge
Alliance		Star Alliance
Subsidiaries		* EuroLOT * Centralwings
Fleet size		58 (8 orders)
Destinations		70
Parent company		Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT SA
Headquarters		Warsaw, Poland
Key people		* Piotr Siennicki (President, CEO) * Karolina Stanisławska (Vice President/Commerce) * Konrad Tyrajski (Vice President/Finance) * Jerzy Adamski (Vice President/Operations)
Website: http://www.lot.com

LOT Polish Airlines (Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT, short name PLL LOT) is the national airline/flag carrier of Poland, based in Warsaw. It operates scheduled passenger and cargo services. Domestic services link Warsaw with ten cities. Over 50 routes are operated throughout Europe and to the Middle East, North America. Its main base is at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. LOT has been a member of Star Alliance since 2003.^[1] Being established in 1929, LOT is one of the oldest airlines in the world.

The airline is owned by the Polish government (67.97%), SAirLines B.V. (a member of SAirGroup) (25.1%) and employees (6.93%).^[2] It has 4,199 employees (March 2007).^[1]

The name Polskie Linie Lotnicze means "Polish Airlines" in Polish, while lot means "flight".

History

Boeing 737-500

The airline was established on 1 January 1929 by the Polish government as a state owned self governing corporation taking over existing domestic lines Aero and Aerolot, and started operations on January 2 ^[3]. The first aircraft used were Junkers F.13 and Fokker F.VII. Its first international service began on 2 August 1929 to Vienna^[3]. Accepted into IATA in 1930, it opened an international route to Bucharest that year, followed by Berlin, Athens, Beirut, Helsinki, Rome and some others. Douglas DC-2, Lockheed L-10A Electra and L-14H Super Electra joined the fleet in 1935, 1936 and 1938 respectively (at its peak, LOT had 10 L-10, 10 L-14, 3 DC-2 and 1 Ju 52/3mge). It carried 218,000 passengers by the war^[3].

Services were suspended during the Second World War, and all of LOT's aircraft were either destroyed or detained. From August 1944 until December 1945 the Polish Air Force maintained basic transport in the country. On 10 March 1945 the Polish government recreated the LOT airline. In 1946, seven years after the service was suspended, the airline restarted its operations after receiving 10 Lisunov Li-2, then further 30 Li-2 and 9 Douglas C-47. Both domestic and international services restarted that year, first to Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Prague.^[4]

Five SNCASE SE.161 Languedoc joined the fleet in July 1947, followed by five Ilyushin Il-12B in April 1949 and 13-20 Ilyushin Il-14s in 1955-1957^[4]. After the stalinist period in Poland, few Western aircraft were acquired: five Convair 240 in October 1957 and 1959 and three Vickers Viscount in November 1962^[5]. Then the composition of the fleet shifted to Soviet aircraft only again.

The Ilyushin Il-18 was introduced in May 1961, leading to the establishment of routes to Africa and Middle East (9 were used). The Antonov An-24 was delivered from April 1966 (20 used, on domestic routes), followed by the first jet airliners Tupolev Tu-134 in November 1968 (12 used) and the Ilyushin Il-62 long range jet airliner in April 1973. The introduction of Il-62 aircraft enabled transatlantic services to Montreal and New York. Tupolev Tu-154 mid-range airliners were acquired in the 1980s. The current planes' livery, with large inscription LOT in blue in fuselage front and blue tailfin, was introduced in 1977^[5].

In the late 1980s, with the fall of the communist system, the fleet shifted back to Western aircraft, beginning with acquisitions of the Boeing 767-200 in April 1989, followed by the ATR 72 in August 1991, Boeing 737-500 in December 1992 and Boeing 737-400 in April 1993. From the mid-1980s to early-1990s LOT flew from Warsaw to Chicago, Newark and Toronto. In December 1992 the airline became a joint stock company, as a transitional step towards partial privatisation, which was effected in late 1999, with the SAirGroup acquiring a 37.6% stake. The Polish government has retained a controlling 51% holding. LOT created low cost arm Centralwings in 2004 ^[1].

On 26 October 2003, it became the fourteenth member of the Star Alliance. The airline has signed a codesharing agreement with Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines. ^{[citation needed]}

Destinations

Main article: LOT Polish Airlines destinations

Main article: Former LOT Polish Airlines destinations

Fleet

The LOT Polish Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft: [1]

Embraer E-170

On 7 September 2005 the airline ordered seven (with two options) Boeing 787-8 for its long haul operations for delivery in 2008.^[6] LOT Polish Airlines will be a European launch carrier for the 787-8 type. On the 19 February 2007 the airline converted one option to make a total of eight Boeing 787s on order^[7].

LOT Polish Airlines was the first airline and launch customer to operate commercial services with the Embraer 170.

Retired fleet

• Ilyushin Il-62
• Ilyushin Il-14
• Tupolev Tu-154
• Ilyushin Il-14
• Tupolev Tu-134
• Convair 240
• Antonov An-24
• Ilyushin Il-12
• C-47 Skytrain
• Vickers Viscount
• Lisunov Li-2
• Junkers F.13
• Douglas DC-2
• Lockheed L-10 Electra
• Fokker F.VII
• Lockheed L-14 Super Electra

Subsidiaries

EuroLOT ATR-42-500

• EuroLOT, a wholly owned subsidiary airline, founded on July 1 1997
• In 2005, a wholly owned subsidiary no-frills airline named Centralwings was launched. Centralwings operates in co-operation with Lufthansa's subsidiary Germanwings. Although independently owned, they share frequent flyer programs and co-ordinate scheduling. ^{[citation needed]}

Codeshare agreements

The airline has codeshare agreements with the following airlines as of April 2007:

• Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
• Aeroflot (Moscow)
• Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev, Simferpool, Odessa, Lviv, Dontesk, Bangkok, Cairo, Beijing)
• Air Canada (London-Heathrow, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Quebec City, Edmonton, Victoria, St. Johns)
• Air China (Beijing) [begins March 30, 2008] (Then in October 2008 Air China itself will start flying to Warsaw)
• ANA (Tokyo)
• Asiana Airlines (Seoul)
• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
• Belavia (Minsk)
• BMI (Dublin, Manchester, London-Heathrow)
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• Bulgaria Air (Sofia)
• Croatia Airlines (Split, Dubrovnik, Zagreb)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Koln/Bonn, Hanover [begins October 28, 2007])
• EL AL (Tel Aviv)
• Rossiya Airlines (Kaliningrad, St.Petersburg)
• SAS (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stoklholm)
• Singapore Airlines (Singapore City)
• Spanair (Barcelona, Madrid)
• Swiss International Air Lines (Zurich, Geneva, Basel)
• TAP^{[disambiguation needed]} (Brussels, Geneva, London, Milan)
• TAROM (Bucharest)
• United Airlines (Boston, Chicago, Miami, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, New York, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis/St Paul, Detroit, Tampa, Las Vegas, Washington, DC, Portland, OR, St Louis, New Orleans, Kansas City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, San Diego, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, Salt Lake City)

Incidents and accidents

• 19 December 1962 - Vickers Viscount 804 (SP-LVB) on a scheduled flight from Brussels to Warsaw with a stop in Berlin crashed at the threshold of runway 33 at Warsaw while making a second approach using instrument landing at night in fog and in winter conditions. There were 33 fatalities (all on board).^[8]
• 2 April 1969 - Antonov An-24B (SP-LTF) crashed in the Polish mountains in Zawoja, off course, on a scheduled domestic flight from Warsaw to Kraków-Balice. There were 53 fatalities (all on board).^[9]
• 14 March 1980 - Ilyushin Il-62 (SP-LAA), flight LO 007 crashed near Warsaw airport after initiating an overshoot procedure due to a landing gear problem. When takeoff thrust was applied, the no.2 engine failed, severing the control cables for the elevator and rudder. There were 87 fatalities (all on board).^[10]
• 9 May 1987 - Ilyushin Il-62M (SP-LBG), flight LO 5055. Shortly after departure from Warsaw, the aircraft's no.1 engine suffered an uncontained engine failure. Parts of the engine penetrated the fuselage and damaged the elevator control systems, causing a loss of elevator authority and eventually a loss of control of the aircraft. There were 183 fatalities (all on board), making this Poland's worst air disaster.^[11]

See also

• Transportation in Poland

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

LOT

• Official website
• Fleet
• Boeing 787 in Livery

Airlines of Poland
Aerogryf · Air Italy Polska · Air Polonia · Centralwings · Direct Fly · EuroLOT · GetJet · LOT Polish Airlines · Prima Charter (ex-Fischer Air Polska) · Silesian Air · White Eagle Aviation · Wizz Air

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