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LOT Polish Airlines

LOT a company known in many countries worldwide, was established almost 75 years ago – on January 1st, 1929. LOT – one of the oldest airlines – has come a long way since its first aircraft, Junkers, designed with limited seating and yearly carriage of several hundred passengers. In 2002 LOT carried over 3,3 million passengers, successfully competing with other airlines in respect of modern equipment, convenience of connections and the quality of service. Its emblem, a stylised crane, is recognised almost everywhere as the symbol of the Polish flag carrier.

LOT Polish Airlines is a joint stock company established on December 29, 1992, as a result of transforming the state owned company of the same name. Until the end of the year 1999 one hundred per cent of shares in the Company’s capital was owned by the State Treasury. As a result of the Company’s privatisation in November 1999, the Swiss holding SAirGroup acquired part of LOT Polish Airlines shares. On October 30, 2001 the Council of Ministers took a decision on increasing LOT Polish Airlines initial capital. A new issue of LOT Polish Airlines shares was accepted in its entirety by the State Treasury, who in this manner became the owner of 67.96 per cent of the carriers shares, while 25.1 per cent is owned by SAirLines B.V., and the remaining 6.94 per cent is held by LOT employees.

In 2002 LOT flew 3.388.000 passengers – which is over 5% more than a year earlier. This is also 115 thousand passengers more than had been assumed in the business plan for that year. It is worth emphasizing that the year 2002 observed an operations decline of 3700 flights (4.9%) and of 10.6% on flights offered. The load factor improved significantly, reaching 69.6 % from 61.8 %. All this was possible as a result of tailoring Company activities to market needs and implementing a flexible pricing policy, as well as the growing efficiency of the LOT hub at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport coupled with expanding co-operation with other carriers operating to Poland, especially Lufthansa and Austrian.

Network and Fleet
The present network of LOT Polish Airlines scheduled flights covers 46 cities in Europe and beyond, plus 12 within Poland.
In the fleet, LOT has bought 18 new aircraft over the last two years and placed an order for 10 Embraer 170 aircraft. In the course of 2002 the ATR 42 aircraft of the -300 variant in the fleet were replaced by the new generation -500 variant. LOT currently operates a fleet of 5 wide-body B767, 19 single aisle B737, 14 regional jets Embraer 145 and 13 ATRs, offering two-class service (Economy and Business) on most flights.

Awards
The high quality of services and professionalism of LOT’s board personnel have been honoured a number of times. The Polish carrier is the winner of the following awards:
The British Business Travel World Magazine prize for the best airlines in Central and Eastern Europe in business class (1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999)
Business Traveller Monthly’s prize for the “Best Eastern European Airline” (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)
The Reader’s Digest prize of a golden statuette for the Most Trustworthy Brand࿟?? (2001, 2002, 2003) The prize for the Best Airline Based in Central and Eastern Europe awarded by OAG, a company belonging to the Reed Business Information Group (2001, 2002, 2003).
LOT has also received the Certificate of the Company’s Brand from the Institute of the Polish Brand (2000).