LOT Receives First Embraer 195

LOT Polish Airlines took delivery of its first Embraer 195 last week and plans to introduce the type into service on a number of its European routes this summer. The carrier, already an operator of the smaller E170 and E175 variants, has four 112-seat E195s on order all of which are due for delivery before the end of this year.

The first scheduled passenger flight using the type is due to take place on April 15 between Warsaw and Brussels and later the same month will be used on links to Rome. As more aircraft are delivered, the E195 will be introduced on schedules to Frankfurt, Kiev, Larnaca, London Heathrow, Minsk, Prague, Rzeszow and Wroclaw from July and to Athens, Bucharest, Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan and Vienna from September.

LOT converted four options for the E175 to the larger E195 in May last year and will use them to replace older Boeing 737-500 models, enabling it streamline its short-haul flying programme around the E-Jet family.

"The E-Jets family is a pivotal element in our business plan to rationalise fleet development and to support our network expansion from our Warsaw hub," said Sebastian Mikosz, Chief Executive Officer, LOT Polish Airlines. "The E195, with the right seat capacity, will be used on our European network, enabling us to benefit from the E-Jets commonality to improve profits."

---

BE THE FIRST WITH THE NEWS…

To keep up to date on a daily basis with the latest new route announcements and changes to airline flight schedules please bookmark our Breaking News page or follow our @TheHUBRoutes twitter feed.

NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.