New LOT Warsaw flights give Miami a nonstop to Eastern Europe

by Jerome Greer Chandler
1370
September 10, 2018
LOT Warsaw Miami nonstop
Photo: LOT

A new service by LOT Polish Airlines provides yet more evidence that Boeing’s 787 aircraft series is a bonafide game-changer, shattering prior calculations of time and distance.

LOT is preparing for the June 1, 2019 launch of new nonstop service from Miami International Airport to Warsaw Chopin Airport. (WAW). The -dash 8 series 787s will make the trip, thus filling in the ‘missing link’ in MIA’s route structure. Currently, there is no nonstop Eastern European service out of MIA.

READ: Korea and Australia have the world’s busiest air routes.

To give that a bit of context, Miami International is the United States’ third-busiest airport for international passengers.

A significant slice of traffic is pegged to the fact that MIA is American Airlines’ Latin American hub. American is a key player in the oneworld alliance, facilitating what the carriers are fond of calling “seamless” connections and smoother passage via other oneworld airlines.

LOT, on the other hand, is a Star Alliance member. United is Star’s largest carrier. It has no MIA hub.

In terms of alliance connections, the set-up may not be ideal for the LOT launch, but both the airline and Miami International Airport officials believe it will work well.

The Warsaw link is “the first such convenient connection between Central and Eastern Europe and Florida,”  according to LOT chief executive Rafal Milczarski, who says half a million passengers per year travel between the two regions.

“Thanks to our broad network of connections and the most convenient transfers offered via (our)  hub in Warsaw, I am sure that many passengers from Miami will take advantage of our latest offer and fly on … board to Budapest, Prague, Kiev or Tel-Aviv,” he said.

LOT isn’t a fly-by-night airline, not the kind of carrier that’s sprung up during the low-fare tidal wave that’s re-writing the book on fares and routes and service

LOT’s been around since late 1928, its signature bird in flight right up there along with the iconic logos of Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France.