LOT Polish Airlines will maintain up to 57 weekly flights from Warsaw to markets in the former Yugoslavia this summer season, which begins on March 26. Unlike previous years, the carrier will only be serving the region from the Polish capital with a total of eight destinations. LOT will maintain operations to Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Split, Skopje and Zagreb. The airline will not return to Pristina this year due to pronounced one-directional seasonality during different parts of the summer, while services to Zadar and Rijeka will not be maintained with the carrier facing significant competition from low cost carriers on the Croatian coast.
LOT will run up to eleven weekly flights from Warsaw to both Belgrade and Zagreb with its Embraer family fleet. Ljubljana will be maintained up to nine times per week with the Embraers, while Skopje and Podgorica will operate daily. Services to the Macedonian capital will run with the Embraers, while Podgorica will see a mix of Boeing 737 and Embraer jets. The carrier will fly to Sarajevo five times per week with the Embraers while a mix of Boeing 737 and Embraer aircraft will be utilised on up to four weekly flights to Dubrovnik and three weekly rotations to Split. Operations to Croatia’s second largest city will resume on May 1 and run until the end of the summer season in late October.
The Polish national carrier faces limited competition on its services to the former Yugoslavia. It competes directly against Wizz Air on flights to Podgorica, Dubrovnik and Split. Besides point-to-point traffic, the airline carries a significant number of transfer passengers. Notably, LOT is popular with travellers from the region flying to or from the United States and Canada. The Polish carrier managed to capitalise on this segment with competitive fares last summer when many major hubs in Western Europe experienced notable issues with cancellations and delays due to chronic staff shortages, while Warsaw avoided major disruptions.
I wonder if Air Serbia's new flights to Chicago and Krakow will have any impact on LOT's Belgrade flights?
ReplyDeleteConsidering they are increasing flights to Belgrade, it seems they are ready to compete.
DeleteAir Serbia should launch WAW with good connection times to JFK and ORD.
DeleteI doubt they would get the slots.
DeleteThen BEG should restrict LO access too.
DeleteBeg is nowhere as limited as Warsaw Chopin is in terms of capacity. It’s just that airport needs to expand, but has nowhere to expand to.
DeleteAnon 13:59
DeleteWhy would BEG limit its business because of JU?
Not limit, just don't give LOT the slot times they need at BEG. Give them another slot time until they put pressure on WAW to give JU the slot times that they would ask for. A form of reciprocity.
DeleteWondering how many Polish from NY and Chicago would use Air Serbia to fly to Warsaw.
DeleteNot bad, they cover almost all of exYu's main destinations.
ReplyDeleteVery good news that they are coming back to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteSurprised they can't make Podgorica work with transfers over winter and that it is a seasonal route.
ReplyDeleteBecause JU dominates the European and JFK transfer market while OS handles the rest.
DeleteHow can LO compete with JU in TGD? It also doesn't help that WAW has an awkward geographical location to serve as a transfer airport to Europe from our region.
Montenegro is a touristic country demand is much strunger during the summer months.
DeleteLOT is great. It has a lot of American routes.
ReplyDeleteCapacity constraints at WAW are restricting their growth. On top of that, ex-YU is a price sensitive market so it's not like they are rushing to assign valuable slots to serve our airports.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they did boost capacity to Belgrade this year as E90/95 is very common this winter.
I think they will benefit from many people wanting to avoid transferring via Amsterdam and Frankfurt this summer following last year.
DeleteCould be but don't forget that OS is ready to handle most of these passengers, same with LH in MUC. Both carriers will have a respectable network out of these hubs.
DeleteAlso, after launching a new premium product, it's obvious that Lufthansa is starting to rethink their whole previous strategy.
I wouldn't be so sure of that, Nemjee. LH's new "premium" product has been present on virtually all other carriers for 5+ years now, and the roll-out is going to take several years as well. It's also telling that they reduced their F cabins from 8 to 4, so they're expecting a softer premium demand in the years to come. I fully expect them to continue down the route they've been on in recent years.
DeleteWell time will tell but I don't think they can go on like this. Their prices do not match the product.
DeleteNemjee, I experinced WAW transfer last summer, wasn't any better than FRA, AMS. Aftet missing our connection because they delayed the first Flight, we had to wait 5 hours (with 2 year old) at costumuer service counter to get some help. We got to our final destination 34 hours later with 2 extra connections.
DeleteDid you get compensation from LOT?
DeleteThat's bad...sorry to hear that.
DeleteThey really decimated their Croatian network. Last year they had:
ReplyDeleteWarsaw to Zadar
Warsaw to Rijeka
Krakow to Split
Rzeszow to Zadar
Zielona Gora to Rijeka
I believe they also decreased Zagreb. Last summer it was 13 weekly.
DeleteZAG was reduced from 12 to 11.
DeleteBefore last year they also had Szceczin and Olstyn/Mazury from Rijeka.
DeleteMany routes to Croatian coastal cities but also Tivat and Ohrid were added in 2020 and 2021 during height of Covid purely for Polish tourists when there was little competition, people were catching nonstop flights to avoid transferring and LOT had a bunch of unused aircraft. Situation has now changed.
DeleteI loved to fly from Rijeka to Olstyn/Mazury from Rijeka: from the furnace to heaven. Such a nice relaxing break in summer it was. I did it twice. All the other pax were polish people to/back from the scorching vacation.
DeleteLOT always had more flights to ZAG than to BEG.
DeleteNow they have the same number of flights.
They actually increased Belgrade from 10 to 11.
ReplyDeleteThey should consider seasonal flights to Ohrid.
ReplyDeleteThey flew to Ohrid in the past.
DeleteNo demand for OHD
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/07/lot-shelves-new-ohrid-flights.html
I think they would have success to many EX YU capitals from Krakow seasonally.
ReplyDeleteDid they increase ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteIn the winter there are 7 weekly flights but I think that 9 weekly in the summer is the same as last year when they operated 9 weekly.
Deletei think it was 5. (LOT Polish Airlines petkrat tedensko v Varšavo)
Deletehttps://www.lju-airport.si/sl/informacije/novice/v-poletni-sezoni-vecja-ponudba-letov-z-ljubljanskega-letalisca/
Szceczin to Zagreb should be their next route in the region. They can offer transfers to SPU, OSI, DBV, SKP, SJJ...
ReplyDeleteThat's quite random
DeleteAn airline for those that don't want to pay for a direct service from Belgrade to Usa
ReplyDeleteWhat does this even mean? JU only covers two routes so far in the US. I would never in my life transfer through a US airport if I could avoid it, so people flying to MIA, LAX etc. will continue to transfer in one of the European hubs instead.
DeleteExactly. Avoiding transferring a US airport is also my and several others choice of flights to the US.
DeleteWhy don't you want to trasfer in a US airport?
DeleteConnecting in Europe is much more convenient. With decent connection times, the experience is less stressful. I had to clear the immigration at point of entry, pick up the luggage and then check in again to my final destination, change terminals with luggage etc, all after long haul flight, exausted. Even Frankfurt proved far more convenient. You arrive from Belgrade, hop on the train connecting terminals, clear the immigration and arrive in time to have a cup of coffee before 11 AM departure to US.
DeleteI was lucky that I always flew to destinations served from Europe, so I had the oportunity to avoid connections in USA gateways.
DeleteHow did you have an 'opportunity' to avoid something? Or did you simply avoid a connecting flight in USA?
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ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, their SkyTrax ratings are not good. You have recent comments from Croatians and Romanians. It has went down to 4/10, which is not good:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/lot-polish-airlines/
I think they have an issue with their business class, that apparently needs much more to desire. We have to listen to their comments because they are the ones who pay the most and logically expect the most.
Their decision to avoid Rijeka will really impact the airport this year. Probably will have less passengers than 2022!
ReplyDeleteLOT used ti be popular with ex-Yu diaspora at one point. But not anymore. Vienna, Munich, Zurich are the most convinient from Canada, price, connection times etc
ReplyDeleteFra, lon, Ams everyone tries to avoid like a plague.
Vienna not so popular anymore. Frankfurt & Munich still popular.
DeleteUsed LOT last summer from YYZ to BEG. AMS use to be great connecting airport before corona.