Sunday, September 22nd, Star Alliance member LOT Polish Airlines operated its inaugural flight from Budapest airport to Seoul Incheon with SP-LRD, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The new route will be flown 3 times weekly.
This is the first long-haul service launched by the Polish airline from Hungary’s capital city to Asia. The launch of new international flights from Budapest by LOT is part of the implementation of another stage of building its second European hub. Schedule (local times):
LO2001 Budapest – Seoul 12:25 – 06:05+1 / Tuesday, Friday, Sunday
LO2002 Seoul – Budapest 07:30 – 13:15 / Monday, Wednesday, Saturday
The Budapest-Seoul flight takes approximately 11 hours. The new connection offered by LOT Polish Airlines will allow passengers to transfer to flights to Warsaw and London City (LCY) and, starting from 30 March 2020, also to LOT’s flights from Budapest to Brussels, Bucharest, Prague and Stuttgart.
“It is a milestone in LOT’s history and another stage of building our second homebase in Budapest. For the first time in its 90-year history, LOT has launched a connection to Asia from outside Poland. I am certain that our services will meet the expectations of Koreans and Hungarians. Tourism and business potential of the cooperation between Budapest and Seoul is huge – the annual passenger traffic on that route reaches 75,000, and the number of passengers travelling annually between the CEE region and Seoul exceeds 580,000. As a leader in the Central and Eastern Europe LOT responds to passengers needs offering them flights not to one but already to two European capitals, Warsaw and Budapest,” stated Rafał Milczarski, LOT’s CEO.
Especially for passengers travelling on the Budapest-Seoul route LOT has a Korean menu, while the on-board entertainment system available in the Korean and Hungarian language versions features Korean and Hungarian movies. LOT plans to ensure Korean- and Hungarian-speaking crew members on each flight.
The launch of flights between Budapest and Seoul is another step in building LOT’s hub in Budapest. Starting from 30 March 2020, the number of flights operated by LOT from the capital of Hungary will total 12 – passengers will be able to fly directly to Warsaw, Krakow, London City, Bucharest, Brussels, Stuttgart, Prague, Belgrade, Sofia as well as New York City, Chicago and Seoul. To operate its newly announced European flights, three LOT’s Embraer 195s will be permanently stationed in Budapest. Starting from the next summer season, the carrier’s fleet in Budapest will amount to 4 short-distance aircraft and one Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
New route / Krakow – New York JFK, more flights from Krakow to Chicago.
Currently, LOT’s staff servicing its direct flights from Budapest totals 80 stewards and stewardesses and a dozen or so Hungarian pilots. It has been recruiting new candidates on a current basis and plans to have employed approx. 150 new pilots until the end of 2019 to work at its bases in Warsaw and Budapest. The launch of the new flights from Budapest is another element of the implementation of LOT’s profitable growth strategy the purpose of which is to build the position of leading airlines in the Central and Eastern Europe.
In 2018, LOT carried a record number of over 8.9 million passengers, up more than 2 million compared to 2017. This year, the Polish airline plans to carry over 10 million passengers. LOT uses more than 80 modern aircraft every day. The carrier’s offer comprises as many as 111 scheduled flights all around the world. Photos: Budapest airport.
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