LOT confirms Budapest - Belgrade launch

NEWS FLASH


LOT Polish Airlines has today announced it will launch daily flights from Budapest to Belgrade, as previously reported. However, the carrier has rescheduled its entire short haul expansion due to fleet constraints resulting from the B737 MAX grounding and will instead start the service during the 2020 summer season, on March 30. In addition to Belgrade, LOT's other new short haul routes from Budapest will include Bucharest, Brussels, Sofia and Prague, which will run twelve times per week, as well as Stuttgart, which will operate daily. All will be maintained with Embraer E190/195 aircraft (a total of four will be stationed in Budapest). Tickets will go on sale on August 7. The announcement was made by the carrier's CEO, Rafal Milczarki, at a press conference in the Hungarian capital. He added, "We also operate flights to each of those destinations from Warsaw and are very pleased with the results. Our analyses showed that those destinations have a huge potential to become successful in Hungary, too”.


Comments

  1. Anonymous11:05

    So much about LOT cancelling the service, like some jealous here were saying...

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:08

      They have effectively canceled planned flights for the winter season. They will only introduce them from summer schedule.

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    2. Anonymous11:13

      All flights have been moved to summer, even Brussels and Bucharest which was announced months ago as launching in November and were bookable.

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    3. Anonymous11:13

      Yes but some were claiming they were completely cancelled.

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    4. Anonymous11:24

      Flights can only be cancelled if they were already in the system. Info anybody?

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    5. Anonymous15:03

      Portal that published news about canceling was saying it was "canceled or rescheduled", so it was correct.

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    6. Anonymous15:20

      That portal you speak of changed the initial text after it published today's piece on BUD and LO. ;)

      Delete
  2. Anonymous11:20

    Time for Air Serbia to respond: launch Toronto and China; then launch BEG-BUD timed for long haul transfers for Budapest passengers. If they don't do it, LOT will siphon away passengers like they did with WAW route.

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    1. Anonymous14:39

      Let's be realistic, we cannot compare Air Serbia and LOT, as we cannot compare Serbia and Poland - it's just a different game and numbers. Air Serbia will struggle with all new connectivity options coming to its zone of interest, without money and effective ways to fight - abandoning WAW was a wise move at the time.

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    2. Anonymous16:29

      Abandoning BUD was not once they started JFK.

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    3. Anonymous16:59

      We already heard that kind of thinking - how Poland has bigger diaspora than Serbia etc. However this is a case of BUD starting a long haul base with some feeder lines, and that case is very similar to Air Serbia scenario. Not responding to it is not the same as not responding to giants BA or LH expanding their long haul at LHR or MUC or even smaller LO at WAW - this is a case of Air Serbia getting competitor to base planes next door, fight for most of the same feeder cities and openly trying to push JU out of long haul business.

      It's completely cut and dry for Air Serbia: announce more long hauls (ideally YYZ and China as they would not overlap with LO services from BUD) and start BUD-BEG services to feed those new lines plus JFK. If not, get out of long haul and cancel JFK. There is no third option for JU.

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    4. Anonymous18:03

      Hopefully JU will get rid of that loss making flight to JFK.

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    5. Anonymous20:01

      @Anon at 18:03

      That would be in LOT interest. Solution not so much in LOT interest is to get GoS, EY and JU to commit to expansion of widebody fleet, add multiple long haul destinations and price aggressively against LOT.

      Delete
    6. Aэrologic21:21

      I'm glad someone thinks the same. This must be reacted to.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11:31

    JFK also goes daily.

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    1. Anonymous16:27

      Next summer when they bring the second 788

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    2. First of all budapest airport needs to get their Shiat together. quickly. I fly into and out of bud couple of times per year and the airport is far to small to handle the volume of passengers that it receives now. Their expansions are way too slow and the new terminal 3 will be opened in 2021. With all of this new traffic coming in next year plus plenty of new routes (long and short haul) will open. The airport in its current state will struggle big time, it could very well shut down LOT in BUD as there's no room to grow.

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    3. Anonymous21:20

      The airport is disastrous.

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    4. Anonymous21:53

      This speaks volumes about LO then, launching an ambitious expansion at an airport without enough room. Maybe they hope to push out some of the competition? EW and Launda might struggle in STR, LO might plan on pushing them out?

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    5. Anonymous21:54

      To me it says a lot about LOT when they start sales for Seoul just a month before they launch the route. Who on earth does that.

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    6. Anonymous21:57

      Well they probably hope it will lose more money than ORD. :D
      I think there is too much capcity to ICN in the region, BUD, ZAG and VIE. Someone will have to give up.

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    7. The only thing it means is more overcrowding in checking and security area until even further expansions are done and the terminal 3 is built and more remote stands are likely instead of jetbridges. Budapest is extremely popular and its very unlikely airlines or routes will be axed.

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    8. Zagreb has nothing to do with budapest. Flights between zagreb and seoul are tourism for the whole of Croatia and dalmatian Coast. Flights between budapest and seoul are the same thing. Vienna is the same story. OS is staralliance and doesn't offer connections onto Korean air. Only competition is the close proximity of bud and vie. I don't why people are keep on banging on zagreb to seoul flights.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous11:32

    So the service begins in 2020? Or this year?

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    1. Anonymous11:36

      In 2020 as they still have to receive some B789s which will replace B788s in WAW. They just added three more E95 into their fleet, one is flying around in bright yellow Saratov livery.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:41

      "LOT Polish Airlines has today announced it will launch daily flights from Budapest to Belgrade, as previously reported."

      Previously reported by EX-YU by clickin on the link:

      "LOT Polish Airlines has filed for slots to launch daily flights between Budapest and Belgrade starting September 1."

      SO what now EX-YU?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:44

      They were supposed to start in September but the whole project was delayed until next year. Their intentions refers to launching BEG, that hasn't changed.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:52

      @11.41
      Read the rest of the article not just the first sentence

      "LOT Polish Airlines has today announced it will launch daily flights from Budapest to Belgrade, as previously reported. However, the carrier has rescheduled its short haul expansion due to fleet constraints resulting from the B737 MAX grounding and will instead start the service during the 2020 summer season, which begins in late March of next year."

      Delete
  5. Anonymous11:45

    So summer 2020 is already starting to look good.

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  6. Anonymous11:49

    Man I'm excited, who else is excited?!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:10

      Me too!!!!

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    2. #me too :-)

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    3. Anonymous13:50

      Yes. :D

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    4. Anonymous15:05

      Usually, if you get overexcited, it might ruin all the fun :))

      Delete
  7. Anonymous12:22

    This actually gave time Air Serbia to respond and attack LOTs planned long haul that they expect to feed from Belgrade.

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    Replies
    1. LOT is not attacking Air Serbia. If anybody it is Lufthansa or Austrian as Hungarians use mainly these airlines in long haul.

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    2. Anonymous13:28

      Ako AS pokrene Toronto i Cikago ili Peking,Lotovi letovi nece poceti ni na prolece. A ukoliko vremena transvera budu dobra mogu im ugroziti i trasvere iz Bukuresta i Sofije.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:27

      A 13:23

      Then why are they introducing daily flights from Belgrade to Budapest, but to draw some transfer passengers away from Air Serbia to their Budapest hub ... I am sure they are not going for P2P passengers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:13

      @Anon at 14:27

      Exactly. With new BUD services LOT wants to attack two competitors: OK with it's sole A330 on PRG-ICN (now that Korean pulled out of CSA) and JU with it's sole A330 on JFK-BEG (now that Air Serbia has been dead in the water for 4 years on long haul expansion).

      Delete
  8. Anonymous15:20

    Man BEG just keeps on winning! Congrats!

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  9. Anonymous16:09

    After all LO will not be flying ZAG-BUD as 2 days ago announced

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:15

      It wasn't announced at all it was said that they were thinking about it. In the end they obviously decided not to fly there.

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    2. Anonymous16:28

      Anyone have an idea why they didn't go for it? I mean they announced many cities in the region.

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    3. Anonymous16:47

      Obviously there isn't market between ZAG and BUD.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:23

      Yes but there is to other points they fly to.

      Delete
  10. First of all budapest airport needs to get their act together, quickly. I fly out of and into BUD couple of times a year and the airport is way too congested and can hardly handle the volume of the passengers now. With all these new routes coming in next year plus many other (short and long haul) will open the airport will be chaos. Their new terminal 3 will open in 2021 and from the plans I've seen it will be low cost shed, no room to grow or expand from there. Plus all of their expansions and new piers are way too slow, I'd avoid connecting in BUD at all costs from knowing what the airport is. Quick and rapid expansion is needed.

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    1. Anonymous21:54

      W6 failed on BUD-OTP, I wonder if LO hopes for the same on BUD-SOF. After all Wizz flies only twice a week, they are easy target and LO offers better comfort, miles and actually a superior onboard product.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:09

      W6 cautiously increased BUD-SOF to 3 weekly for the first time this winter and the 12 weekly LOT service will undoubtely affect them. Even though it will be mainly transfer, might be O&D as well.
      OTP-BUD failed because RO was also operating the route, which made supply more than demand.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous23:18

      Yes but RO is not as competitive as LO so I think they have less chance in SOF than in OTP.

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    4. Anonymous05:25

      The same doubts I have for Belgrade after the failure of Air Serbia on the BEG-BUD route.

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    5. Anonymous08:06

      Don't have any doubts, smile, enjoy your day and book a flight on LO via BUD!

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    6. Belavia flies beg to bud now however they're axing it so lot will take over, air serbia is starting nis to budapest flights.

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    7. Tarom flies 3 times per day between budapest and Bucharest but connecting passangers are majority of it. Bucharest isn't really tourist city and with wizz there's no connections possible hence it pulled out.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous21:55

    Kinda crazy to think that LOT will operate up to 5-7 daily flights from/to PRG, OTP and SOF in addition to their WAW flights. This will reach the levels of LH!!!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:19

      Bye bye OS. LOL

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    2. 5 daily flights? They'll operate 1-2 daily flights

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    3. Anonymous21:28

      Unknown he is also referring to LO's flights from WAW, that is from Warsaw in Poland where their main hub is located. BUD as in Budapest in Hungary is where their secondary base will be.

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    4. I know but that's like comparing Frankfurt and munich flights as one nevertheless very exciting news for budapest after malev collapse, LOT seems to know their game and is expanding rapidly. OS is indeed in trouble lufthansa group got too big and OS with SN is kinda lost and dying in the paperwork.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous00:21

    Budapest Airport has already started advertising the Belgrade route. I got a "sponsored" story from BUD on my instagram.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous05:27

      Budapest keeps rockin'... traffic will soon reach 15 million...!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous08:04

      Even though BEG-BUD is horrible, BUD-BEG is quite decent since the flight departs at around 22.30 giving you a whole day in Budapest. Now all we have to see is what kind of fares they start selling. I think this route will be a success, after all I don't remember when was the last time an airline suspended Belgrade due to low loads.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous12:26

    LO should have introduced China flights from Budapest and offered connections from Belgrade the same way Mahan is doing it. Chinese arrival are through the roof:

    June: 16.698 (+41.7%)
    2019: 57.286 (+36%)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:00

      better yet, Air Serbia to start nonstop flights to China from Belgrade

      Delete

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