LOT Polish Airlines
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| LOT Polish Airlines Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT |
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| IATA LO |
ICAO LOT |
Callsign POLLOT [1] |
| Founded | 1 January 1929 | |
| Hubs | Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport | |
| Focus cities | ||
| Frequent flyer program | Miles and More | |
| Member lounge | Executive Lounge | |
| Alliance | Star Alliance | |
| Subsidiaries | ||
| Fleet size | 37 (+20 orders +20 options) | |
| Destinations | 55 | |
| 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. 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 Frederic Chopin Airport. LOT has been a member of Star Alliance since 2003.[2] Established in 1929, LOT is one of the oldest airlines in the world.
The airline is owned by the Polish government (67.97%), SAirLines B.V. (a member of SAirGroup) (25.1%) and employees (6.93%).[3] It has 4,199 employees (March 2007).[2]
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[edit] 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 January 2.[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 L-10A Electra and L-14H Super Electra joined the fleet in 1935, 1936 and 1938 respectively (at its peak, LOT had 10 L-10, 10 L-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. Tupolev Tu-154 mid-range airliners were acquired in the 1980s.
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 symmetry flips here and there, notably in corporate typography) and constitutes a highly regarded original Polish graphic design 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]
In the late 1980s, with the fall of the communist system, 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, 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.[2]
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]
[edit] Destinations
[edit] Fleet
[edit] Passenger
The LOT Polish Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 3 October 2008): [1][2]
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers (Business/Economy) |
Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-400 | 3 | 147 (48/99) | European and Middle-Eastern | |
| Boeing 737-500 | 6 | 108 (36/72) | European and Middle-Eastern | |
| Boeing 767-200ER | 1 | 202 (12/190) | Transatlantic and Asian | Exit from service: November 2008 |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 5 | 243 (18/225) | Transatlantic | 4 out of 5 have new long-haul business class |
| Boeing 787-8 | (8 orders) | 273 (24/249) | Transatlantic and Asian | Entry into service: 2010 European Launch Customer |
| Embraer ERJ 145 | 6 | 48 | Domestic and European | |
| Embraer E-170 | 10 | 76 | Domestic and European | Launch Customer |
| Embraer E-175 | 6 (12 orders + 12 options)[9] |
82 | Domestic and European |
On 7 September 2005 the airline ordered seven (with two options) Boeing 787-8 for its long haul operations for delivery in 2008.[10] LOT Polish Airlines will be a European launch carrier for the 787-8 type.
On 19 February 2007 the airline converted one option to make a total of eight Boeing 787s on order.[11]
[edit] Retired
- Ilyushin Il-62
- Ilyushin Il-14
- Tupolev Tu-154
- Tupolev Tu-134
- Ilyushin Il-18
- Convair 240
- Antonov An-24
- Ilyushin Il-12
- C-47 Skytrain
- Vickers Viscount
- Lisunov Li-2
- Junkers F.13
- Douglas DC-2
- Douglas DC-10
- Lockheed L-10 Electra
- Fokker F.VII
- Lockheed L-14 Super Electra
[edit] Subsidiaries
- EuroLOT, a wholly-owned subsidiary airline, founded on July 1, 1997
- In 2005, a wholly-owned subsidiary no-frills airline named Centralwings was launched.
[edit] Codeshare agreements
LOT Polish Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines as of April 2007:
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Note: This list includes Star Alliance (SA) partners.
[edit] Incidents and accidents
- 19 December 1962 — Vickers Viscount 804 on a scheduled flight 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).[12]
- 2 April 1969 — Antonov An-24B 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]
- 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 near Rzeszow after both engines failed. One Passenger died and the rest were seriously injured. [16]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ ICAO 8585 Edition 144 p. 1-63
- ^ a b c "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International (2007-04-03), p. 107.
- ^ "LOT Corporate Information". PLL LOT (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ a b c Adam Jońca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1931-1939, WKiŁ, Warsaw 1985, ISBN 83-206-0504-0
- ^ a b Adam Jońca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1945-1956, WKiŁ, Warsaw 1985, ISBN 83-206-0529-0
- ^ a b Adam Jońca, Samoloty linii lotniczych 1957-1981, WKiŁ, Warsaw 1986, ISBN 83-206-0530-X
- ^ History, LOT.com. Link accessed 2008-05-28.
- ^ "History of LOT’s logo", LOT.com. Link accessed 2008-05-28.
- ^ Brazil Embraer sells 12 jets to Polish carrier LOT | Industries | Industrials, Materials & Utilities | Reuters
- ^ Boeing Press Release (September 2005)
- ^ Boeing Press Release (February 2007)
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LVB".
- ^ "Aviation Sefety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LTF".
- ^ "Aviation Sefety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LAA".
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LBG".
- ^ "Aviation Safety Network, crash of aircraft registration: SP-LTD".
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Tadeusz Gronowski (Polish Wikipedia biography of the creator of the LOT logo, depicting a stylized crane inscribed in a circle, winner of a competition for the airline's logo held in 1929) (Polish)
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