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"LOT" redirects here. For other uses, see Lot.
 Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A., trading as LOT Polish Airlines or LOT (Polish: Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT, abbreviated as PLL LOT), is the flag carrier of Poland, based in Warsaw. The name Polskie Linie Lotnicze means "Polish Airlines" in Polish, while lot means "flight". LOT operates scheduled passenger and cargo services: domestic services link Warsaw with ten cities and over 50 routes are operated throughout Europe and to the Middle East and North America. Its main base is at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. LOT has been a member of Star Alliance since 2003.[2] Established in 1929, LOT is one of the oldest airlines in the world. The airline is owned by the Polish government (67.97%), Towarzystwo Finansowe Silesia sp. z o.o. (25.1%) and employees (6.93%). It has 4,199 employees (March 2007).[2]
[edit] HistoryThe airline was established on 1 January 1929 by the Polish government as a state owned self governing corporation taking over existing domestic lines Aero and Aerolot, and started operations on 2 January.[3] The first aircraft used were Junkers F.13 and Fokker F.VII. Its first international service began on 2 August 1929 to Vienna.[3] Accepted into IATA in 1930, it opened an international route to Bucharest that year, followed by Berlin, Athens, Beirut, Helsinki, Rome and some others. Douglas DC-2, Lockheed L-10A Electra and L-14H Super Electra joined the fleet in 1935, 1936 and 1938 respectively (at its peak, LOT had 10 L-10, 10 L-14, 3 DC-2 and 1 Ju 52/3mge). It carried 218,000 passengers by the war.[3] Services were suspended during the Second World War, and all of LOT's aircraft were either destroyed or detained. From August 1944 until December 1945 the Polish Air Force maintained basic transport in the country. On 10 March 1945 the Polish government recreated the LOT airline. In 1946, seven years after the service was suspended, the airline restarted its operations after receiving 10 Lisunov Li-2, then further 30 Li-2 and 9 Douglas C-47. Both domestic and international services restarted that year, first to Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Prague.[4] Five Sud-Est Languedoc joined the fleet in July 1947, followed by five Ilyushin Il-12B in April 1949 and 13-20 Ilyushin Il-14s in 1955-1957[4]. After the stalinist period in Poland, few Western aircraft were acquired: five Convair 240 in October 1957 and 1959 and three Vickers Viscount in November 1962[5]. Then the composition of the fleet shifted to Soviet aircraft only again. The Ilyushin Il-18 (9 aircraft) was introduced in May 1961, leading to the establishment of routes to Africa and Middle East. The Antonov An-24 was delivered from April 1966 (20 used, on domestic routes), followed by the first jet airliners Tupolev Tu-134 in November 1968 (12 used) and the Ilyushin Il-62 long range jet airliner in May 1972. The introduction of Il-62 aircraft enabled transatlantic services to Toronto, Montreal, Chicago and New York. Tupolev Tu-154 mid-range airliners were acquired in the 1980s. From the mid-1980s to the early-1990s transatlantic charter flights reach Detroit, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. The current livery, with the large inscription LOT in blue on the fuselage front, and a blue tailfin, was introduced in 1977,[5] but the circular representation of a stylized crane in flight remains unchanged over the years (with occasional flips, notably in corporate typography), designed by Tadeusz Gronowski, a visual artist from Warsaw, who won the competition for creating the airline's logo in 1929,[6] introduced 2 years later by the airline and kept through the years, despite many changes in livery[7] After the fall of the communist system in Poland in 1989 the fleet shifted back to Western aircraft, beginning with acquisitions of the Boeing 767-200 in April 1989, followed by the Boeing 767-300 in March 1990,ATR 72 in August 1991, Boeing 737-500 in December 1992 and Boeing 737-400 in April 1993. From the early-1990s LOT flew from Warsaw to Chicago, Edmonton, Montreal, Newark, New York and Toronto. In December 1992 the airline became a joint stock company, as a transitional step towards partial privatisation, which was effected in late 1999, with the SAirGroup acquiring a 37.6% stake. The Polish government has retained a controlling 51% holding. LOT created low cost arm Centralwings in 2004.[2] On 26 October 2003, it became the fourteenth member of the Star Alliance. The airline has signed a codesharing agreement with Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines.[citation needed] [edit] DestinationsMain article: LOT Polish Airlines destinations [edit] Fleet[edit] PassengerThe LOT Polish Airlines Fleet consists of the following aircraft as of October 2009
[edit] Retired
[edit] Subsidiaries
[edit]LOT Polish Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines as of October 2009: [edit] Incidents and accidents
[edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
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