Andrjez Jeziorski/WARSAW
LOT Polish Airlines expects passenger numbers to top 2 million this year, following solid growth so far in 1996, and plans for further expansion of the network in the remainder of the year.
The airline's fleet has also been growing, and now numbers four Boeing 767s, 11 Boeing 737s and eight AI(R) ATR 72 turboprops. The airline has also leased an additional 767 for transatlantic charter services and taken another 737 on a one-year lease. A further expansion is due in mid-1998 when the airline takes delivery of two new-generation 737-800s. LOT's order, which was the first by a European airline for the type, also included the placing of eight options for deliveries from 1999 onward.
The fleet expansion is backed by strong growth so far this year, with passenger traffic rising by 10.3% in the first eight months of the year. Up to the end of August, LOT carried more than 1.3 million passsengers, showing 6% growth on international routes and a 15% increase on the domestic network. Charter services also carried twice as many passengers. LOT expects the full year total to beat the 1995 figure of just over 1.8 million passengers.
For its winter season, which began on 27 October, LOT increased weekly frequencies to Prague from ten to 12, and more than doubled its Berlin frequencies to 13 flights a week. Services to Bangkok and Stockholm have been boosted by one weekly flight, while weekly services from Katowice to Frankfurt are increasing from four to six flights, and the Wroclaw to Frankfurt services are increasing from four to five flights.
LOT, still being prepared for privatisation, has stayed in profit over the past three years. In 1995 it made a net profit of Pzl5.4 million ($2 million) on a turnover of Pzl1.15 billion, while operating profits doubled to Pzl98 million.
Source: Flight International
