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LOT Polish Airlines
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| Founded | 1 January 1929 | |||
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| Hubs | Warsaw | |||
| Focus cities | ||||
| Frequent flyer program | Miles & More | |||
| Member lounge | Executive Lounge | |||
| Alliance | Star Alliance | |||
| Subsidiaries | ||||
| Fleet size | 60 (+ 17 orders, 11 options, 7 purchase rights) including EuroLOT |
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| Destinations | 51 | |||
| Parent company | State Treasury of Poland | |||
| Headquarters | Warsaw, Poland | |||
| Key people |
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| Website | http://www.lot.com | |||
Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A., trading as LOT Polish Airlines or LOT (Polish: Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT, abbreviated as PLL LOT), is the flag carrier of Poland, based in Warsaw.[2] The name Polskie Linie Lotnicze means "Polish Airlines" in Polish, while lot means "flight". LOT operates scheduled passenger and cargo services: domestic services link Warsaw with ten cities and over 50 routes are operated throughout Europe and to the Middle East and North America. Its main base is at Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport. LOT has been a member of Star Alliance since 2003.[3] Established in 1929, LOT is one of the oldest airlines in the world.
The airline is owned by the Polish government (67.97%), Towarzystwo Finansowe Silesia sp. z o.o. (25.1%) and employees (6.93%). It has 4,199 employees (March 2007).[3]
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History
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 2 January.[4] The first aircraft used were Junkers F.13 and Fokker F.VII. Its first international service began on 2 August 1929 to Vienna.[4] 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 Model 10A Electra and Model 14H Super Electra joined the fleet in 1935, 1936 and 1938 respectively (at its peak, LOT had 10 Lockheed 10, 10 Lockheed 14, 3 DC-2 and 1 Ju 52/3mge). It carried 218,000 passengers by the war.[4]
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.[5]
Five Sud-Est 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[5]. 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[6]. Then the composition of the fleet shifted to Soviet aircraft only again.
The Ilyushin Il-18 (9 aircraft) was introduced in May 1961, leading to the establishment of routes to Africa and Middle East. 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 May 1972. The introduction of Il-62 aircraft enabled transatlantic services to Montreal and New York. Polish pilots would frequently go to Anchorage, Rio de Janeiro, and Vancouver to exchange fishing crews. Interestingly, these fishing fleets helped the aircrew a great deal. There were no regular flights to Anchorage, Rio de Janeiro, and Vancouver so ship crew exchange charter flights were a great adventure for pilots. In Autumn, 1981 air transportation collapses some Western airlines suspend their connections with Warsaw. On 13 December, all LOT Polish Airlines connections are suspended. In 1984 charter flights to New York and Chicago are resumed, then regular flights are resumed.Tupolev Tu-154 mid-range airliners were acquired in the 1980s. From the mid-1980s to the early-1990s transatlantic charter flights reach Detroit and Los Angeles.
The current livery, with the large inscription LOT in blue on the fuselage front, and a blue tailfin, was introduced in 1977,[6] but the circular representation of a stylized crane in flight remains unchanged over the years (with occasional flips, notably in corporate typography), designed by Tadeusz Gronowski, a visual artist from Warsaw, who won the competition for creating the airline's logo in 1929,[7] introduced 2 years later by the airline and kept through the years, despite many changes in livery[8]
After the fall of the communist system in Poland in 1989 the fleet shifted back to Western aircraft, beginning with acquisitions of the Boeing 767-200 in April 1989, followed by the Boeing 767-300 in March 1990,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, Edmonton, Montreal, Newark, New York 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.[3]
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
Fleet
Passenger
The LOT Polish Airlines Fleet consists of the following aircraft as of October 2009
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Options | Purchase rights | Passengers (Business/Economy) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATR 42-500 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | Part of the EuroLOT fleet, Leaving 2010 |
| ATR 72-202 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | Part of the EuroLOT fleet |
| Boeing 737-400 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 147 (48/99), 162 in charter traffic | 6 operated by LOT Charters |
| Boeing 737-500 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 108 (36/72) | |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 243 (18/225)- SP-LPA, SP-LPB, SP-LPC, SP-LPF 247 (18/229)- SP-LPE 258 (18/240)- SP-LPG |
|
| Boeing 787-8 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 273 (24/249) expected | Entry into service: 2012 |
| Embraer ERJ 145 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 48 | Exit out of Service: 3 in 2010, 3 in 2011 |
| Embraer E-195 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 112 (12/100) | Entry Into Service:2011 |
| Embraer E-170 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 70 | Launch customer |
| Embraer E-175 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 82 | |
| Total | 61 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
- On 7 September 2005 the airline ordered seven (with two options and five purchase rights) Boeing 787-8s for its long haul operations for delivery in 2011 (originally for 2008).[9]
- On 19 February 2007 the airline converted one option to make a total of eight Boeing 787-8s on order.[10]
Retired
- Boeing 737-300
- Boeing 767-200ER
- Ilyushin Il-62
- Ilyushin Il-14
- Tupolev Tu-154
- Tupolev Tu-134
- Ilyushin Il-18
- Convair 240
- Antonov An-24
- Antonov An-26, three aircraft leased from the Polish Air Force for LOT Cargo
- Ilyushin Il-12
- C-47 Skytrain
- Vickers Viscount
- Lisunov Li-2
- Junkers F.13
- Douglas DC-2
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- Lockheed Model 10 Electra
- Fokker F.VII
- Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra
- Junkers Ju-52
- Douglas DC-8, one DC-8-62CF leased from Arrow Air in 1988
- PWS-24
- SE-161, leased in 1947
- Lockheed L1011, one leased from Luzair in 2005 for use on Warsaw to Toronto flights
Subsidiaries
- EuroLOT, a wholly-owned subsidiary airline, founded on 1 July 1997
- In 2004, a wholly-owned subsidiary no-frills airline named Centralwings was launched. Centralwings ceased operations in April 2009.
LOT Polish Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of January 2010):
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Charter flights
LOT Polish Airlines is to launch charter operations under the name of LOT Charters. The announcement of the launch of LOT Charters has been positively received by tour operators. The first aircraft in LOT Charters livery took off on 1st June 2009. LOT Polish Airlines expects 400,000 passengers on chartered long- and short-haul flights this year, which would allow the company to reach a 25 percent market share and establish a leading position among charter carriers operating on the Polish market. Over the past 10 years, the market of charter flights in Poland has been showing a steady growth rate of 9 - 11 percent. Most LOT Charters flights will be operated using six Boeing 737-400 aircraft. For the first time, LOT charter flights will also be flown by a Boeing 767 which will allow direct long-haul operations. The possibility of taking passengers, especially in the winter season, to distant and exotic destinations, e.g. Thailand, Mexico or the Caribbean, makes the service offered by LOT Charters particularly attractive. LOT Charters has already established partnerships with several major tour operators such as Neckermann, TUI, Rainbow Tours, Orbis Travel, and Triada.
Incidents and accidents
- 19 December 1962 Vickers Viscount 804, on a scheduled flight LO 248 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).[11]
- On 20 August 1965 - Vickers Viscount SP-LVA of crashed at Jeuk, Belgium after entering a thundercell. All four people on board were killed.[12]
- 2 April 1969 Antonov An-24W, flight LO 165, 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).[13]
- 17 May 1977 Antonov An-12, SP-LZA, a cargo plane leased by LOT Polish airlines from the Polish Air Force along with its crew, flying with a cargo of fresh strawberries crashed in Liban, 8 kilometers from Beirut airport, all onboard were killed.
- 14 March 1980 Ilyushin Il-62, flight LO 007, crashed near Warsaw airport after starting an overshoot 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).[14]
- 9 May 1987 Ilyushin Il-62M, 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.[15]
- 2 November 1988 - Antonov An-24W, flight LO 703, had to make emergency landing on a field 32 km from Rzeszow after both engines failed. One passenger died and the rest were seriously injured.[16]
See also
References
- ^ ICAO 8585 Edition 144 p. 1-63
- ^ "Contact." LOT Polish Airlines. Retrieved on 9 February 2010.
- ^ a b c "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 107. 3 April 2007.
- ^ a b c Adam Joca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1931-1939, WKi, Warsaw 1985, ISBN 83-206-0504-0
- ^ a b Adam Joca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1945-1956, WKi, Warsaw 1985, ISBN 83-206-0529-0
- ^ a b Adam Joca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1957-1981, WKi, Warsaw 1986, ISBN 83-206-0530-X
- ^ History, LOT.com. Link accessed 28 May 2008.
- ^ "History of LOTs logo", LOT.com. Link accessed 28 May 2008.
- ^ Boeing Press Release (September 2005)
- ^ Boeing Press Release (February 2007)
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LVB". http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19621219-0.
- ^ "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19650820-2. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
- ^ "Aviation Sefety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LTF". http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19690402-1.
- ^ "Aviation Sefety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LAA". http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19800314-1&lang=en.
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LBG". http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19870509-0&lang=en.
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LTD". http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19881102-0&lang=en.
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: LOT |
- Official website
- Tadeusz Gronowski (Polish Wikipedia biography of the creator of the LOT logo, winner of a 1929 competition for the airline's logo) (Polish)
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