LOT Polish Airlines launched flights to Dubai yesterday, competing with the double-daily service that flydubai and Emirates offer between Warsaw and Dubai. It is not an easy market to compete in.
LOT Polish starts flying to Dubai
Yesterday, Sunday 26th September, LOT Polish Airlines inaugurated its new route between Dubai International (DXB) and its base, Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW).
The launch coincides with the beginning of Expo 2020 in Dubai next month, but it also strengthens LOT Polish’s move into the long-haul tourism sector. Dubai is increasingly a popular winter tourism destination for the people of Poland, and LOT wants to capitalize on that.
The route will be operated three times weekly as follows:
- Flight LO121 leaving WAW at 07:40 and arriving in DXB at 15:25
- Flight LO122 leaving DXB at 17:15 and arriving in WAW at 21:35
Flights will run on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays starting next week. This week, there is a rotation on Thursday and on Sunday. Some of the upcoming flights next week are already showing as sold out.
All flights are currently scheduled to operate with LOT Polish’s Boeing 737-800NG aircraft in a two-class configuration that can seat a maximum of 168 passengers.
However, yesterday’s inaugural flight was actually operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8.
A tough market
The scheduling of the route, with flights leaving Warsaw as early as 07:40 in the morning, means LOT Polish is counting on transfer traffic to fill its seats, just like it does for its entire long-haul network.
For example, on Mondays, passengers arriving from all these domestic and international destinations on flights operated by LOT Polish between 06:00 and 06:45 can connect to Dubai:
- Poznan in Poland (POZ)
- Chisinau in Moldova (KIV)
- Odesa in Ukraine (ODS)
- Kyiv in Ukraine (IEV)
- Lviv in Ukraine (LWO)
- 0 Bucharest in Romania (OTP)
- Rzeszow in Poland (RZE)
- Lublin in Poland (LUZ)
- Bydgoszcz in Poland (BZG)
- Sofia in Bulgaria (SOF)
- Katowice in Poland (KTW)
- Gdansk in Poland (GDN)
- Vilnius in Lithuania (VNO)
- Tbilisi in Georgia (TBS)
- Yerevan in Armenia (EVN)
- Tallinn in Estonia (TLL)
- Riga in Latvia (RIX)
- Wroclaw in Poland (WRO)
- Krakow in Poland (KRK)
The vast majority of these destinations do not have direct flights to Dubai at all, so LOT will certainly be seeing some transfer traffic. This is very important because it is a way for LOT to compete with a much bigger airline, Emirates, that offers flights to Warsaw twice-daily in cooperation with flydubai.
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Tough competition from Emirates
On a daily basis, Emirates and flydubai are flying between Warsaw and Dubai too, and they offer something that LOT Polish cannot offer: a vast transfer network out of Dubai.
Furthermore, they offer far greater connectivity for anyone wishing to visit Dubai from Warsaw because their two-daily schedule offers much flexibility in terms of trip duration and the desired departure and arrival times.
Next, flydubai generally offers lower prices than LOT does, thus capturing nay customers that may be highly price-sensitive.
Last but not least, Emirates is flying the route with its Boeing 777. This will certainly be a factor for some passengers.
Thus, LOT has tough competition on this route. However, capitalizing on its own transfer potential out of Warsaw, it may be able to put up a good fight.
Do you think LOT will do well on its route to Dubai? Let us know in the comments below.
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