LOT Confirms Chicago Dreamliner Debut Set for January 2013

LOT Polish Airlines will be the first European carrier to operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and unsurprisingly has confirmed it will use the type to replace its older Boeing 767 models in its Warsaw – Chicago route from January 2013. The Star Alliance member has eight 787-8s on order having signed an initial contract for seven aircraft in September 2005 and then converting an option for one further aircraft in February 2007. The aircraft will arrive from this autumn and will directly replace the airline’s 767-300ER fleet and provide capacity for further medium- and long-haul network growth.

The Polish flag carrier has served Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport from the country’s capital, Warsaw, since January 1988 when it initially utilised Douglas DC-8s and Ilyushin Il-62s on the route. The arrival of its 767s enabled the service to be upgraded in May 1989 and additional frequencies were introduced from the following month. A seasonal Krakow – Chicago link was also added between June and September 1998 and this was expanded to a year-round basis from April 1999 but this flight was suspended in October 2010.

LOT currently offers a daily schedule on the Warsaw – Chicago route but will increase this to nine flights per week from June. An estimated 133,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in 2011, up 13.8 per cent on the year earlier with LOT holding around an 85 per cent share of the traffic as the only carrier offering direct air services between the two cities.

Alongside the passenger service LOT also serves Chicago as a dedicated freight destination, supplemented by bellyhold cargo on its scheduled flights. Earlier this year, the airline introduced a new cargo link to the US city from Katowice operated on a twice weekly basis using a 767-200F flown under a wet-lease arrangement with Cargo Jet. "Chicago was selected for the all cargo service because it's the top destination where cargo is transported to and from Poland,” highlighted Marcin Pirog, Chief Executive Officer, LOT Polish Airlines.

In addition to the Chicago route, LOT currently uses its 767s on flights from Warsaw to New York JFK, Newark and Toronto but has plans to expand further into the Asian market following the arrival of the Dreamliners. It has, up until this month, been operating flights between Warsaw and Hanoi, Vietnam (launched in November 2010) and is due to resume flights in May between the Polish capital and Beijing, China, a route it last served in summer 2008.

The table below highlights the largest O&D markets in Asia from Poland last year. The Georgian and Armenian capitals Tbilisi and Yerevan are both already served by LOT Polish Airlines, while the carrier has also previously operated to Bangkok (last flights in May 2000) and New Delhi (a route closed in October 1992).