The LOT Polish Airlines Fleet In 2021

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With 73 aircraft under its management, LOT Polish Airlines isn’t a large carrier when compared to some of its other European partners. However, the flag carrier of Poland does a solid job of connecting much of Europe out of its Warsaw hub, with some services even running out of its smaller hub at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Hungary. Let’s take a look at the aircraft used by the carrier in 2021.

LOT 787
LOT Polish uses the Boeing 787 for its long-haul operations. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The LOT fleet at a glance

First, let’s take a look at the composition of the airline’s fleet as a whole. The aircraft types are listed below with quantities in parentheses. We’ll first start with Boeing aircraft, which are the airline’s largest aircraft:

  • 787-8 (8)
  • 787-9 (7)
  • 737-800 (6)
  • 737 MAX 8 (5)

For its regional jets, LOT has gone with Embraer’s E-Jet series:

  • E170 (6)
  • E175 (10)
  • E190 (4)
  • E195 (15)

Finally, the airline operates 12 Bombardier Dash 8-400 turboprops for its shorter regional services.

LOT Dash 8
The Dash 8 turboprops connect many Polish cities but also fly to other European cities in the region. Photo: Anna Zvereva via Wikimedia Commons 

Embraer regional jets moving around

With 35 Embraer regional jets, LOT is one of Europe’s larger Embraer operators. The airline is set to be the largest Embraer operator on the continent because of a deal with Azul to lease 32 E195s. However, the deal, announced in late-January of 2020 (the eve of the global health crisis), doesn’t appear to have come to fruition- or at least not yet.

If things are still moving forward, the deal will see Azul let go of its E195 aircraft by the end of 2021 as it takes on the newer E2 version of the regional aircraft.

At the time of the announcement, Rafał Milczarski, CEO of LOT Polish Airlines, made the following statement through an Azul media release:

“The E195 jets are the core of our short-haul fleet…they have already proved their reliability and cost efficiency over the past few years and this is what we aim for while developing the flight network from our bases in Warsaw and Budapest. Thanks to that, in 2021 LOT will be the biggest Embraer operator in Europe and among the biggest in the world.” 

Lot E195
The Embraer E-Jet series is a significant part of the LOT fleet. Photo: Eric Salard via Wikimedia Commons 

On the ‘giving’ side, LOT has leased out some of its own Embraer jets. Indeed, the airline signed a contract to lease out two of its E195s to Bamboo Airways of Vietnam. The two jets, registered SP-LNH and SP-LNI, flew for Bamboo from fall 2020 through to late-Spring 2021.

Going with Boeing

The other large part of the LOT fleet consists of Boeing aircraft: The 787 for its long-haul operations and the 737 for its short and medium-haul services.

Interestingly, the Polish carrier operates a service out of Budapest. This is a flight to Seoul Incheon, in South Korea, using the Boeing 787-8.

LOT 737
LOT flys the Boeing 737-800 as well as the 737 MAX 8. Photo: LOT Polish Air

For the airline’s 737 operations, it uses its -800s and MAX 8s out of Warsaw and Katowice on routes where it needs more capacity than is available with its Embraer jets. This currently includes destinations such as London (UK), Kyiv (Ukraine), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Athens (Greece), and Tirana (Albania).

Have you ever flown with LOT? Share your experience with us by leaving a comment.


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