The Polish flag carrier will introduce two additional weekly frequencies to both Chicago and New York from late October 2016 as it aims to become the leading carrier in New Europe (Central and Eastern Europe).
Wizz will start flights to Warsaw and Budapest from the West Midlands-based airport from September, as the airline progresses towards operating from primary airports within the UK.
It has been a massive couple of years for LOT as it continues its restructuring to return the Star Alliance member to sustainable profitability. Its future was effectively safeguarded last summer when the European Commission formally approved its restructuring plan and ruled the PLN 804 million (around €200 million) of state aid granted to the carrier lawful in terms of the provisions of EU legislation.
Updated schedules for the remainder of the year show the Gulf carrier will switch the aircraft type deployed on the routes to Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport and Warsaw’s Chopin Airport from its smallest aircraft, the Airbus A330-200, to a larger Boeing 777-300ER. The change will take effect from December 1, 2015.
Latest data for March 2015 shows the airport handled 804,300 passengers during the month, a 10.5 per cent growth year-on-year. It was the first March in its history that the Warsaw airport broke the 800,000 passenger mark and the sixth straight month of record-breaking figures for Warsaw Chopin Airport, continuing a trend started in October 2014.
Wizz Air first launched operations in Poland in 2004 and has subsequently built up a strong presence in the country over the subsequent eleven years. As a result of these latest network additions it will now offer a total of 113 Polish routes to 20 countries from seven Polish airports.
A recent social media report by ACI Europe shows the ways in which European airports are using social media to communicate with their customers. We’ve broken the report down to analyse each social media platform, and add some of our own insights.
LOT has been in financial difficulties for several years, reporting significant losses and negative equity, but in 2013 it recorded for the first time in five years a net profit of PLN 26 million, instead of almost PLN 200 million loss envisaged in the Restructuring Plan presented to the European Commission. This was its first annual net profit since 2007.
Although Norwegian had been serving Gatwick from various points across its network since October 2007 it only opened a base at London’s second largest airport in May 2013. It has already expanded its network to operate 375 weekly flights and 33 routes to and from the facility.