LOT Polish Airlines is complementing its existing services between Warsaw and Beijing’s Capital Airport with a brand new service between Warsaw and Beijing's new Daxing Airport. The airline is now offering daily flights to a choice of airports in China’s capital.
LOT Polish Airlines now flies to two airports in Beijing
The inaugural service between Warsaw and Beijing Daxing departed on Wednesday, 15 January 2020. The services, departing Warsaw late evening on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday will take just under nine hours to cover the seven thousand kilometers and will be operated by 787 Dreamliners. Services to Beijing Capital will operate on alternative days - Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, also utilizing the Dreamliner.
In a statement provided to Simple Flying, Rafel Milczarski, LOT Polish Airlines CEO said;
“... The Beijing Daxing International Airport opens new development opportunities for us in one of the biggest and most dynamic economies in the world. It is an excellent proposal for business and tourist passengers traveling between Central and Eastern Europe and China.”
The late evening departure from Warsaw will see the flights land at Daxing mid-afternoon on the following day. After about ninety minutes on the ground, there is a late afternoon departure from Daxing on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for a same day arrival in Warsaw later that evening.
The 787 Dreamliner has allowed LOT Polish to expand its horizons
LOT Polish Airlines now has 15 Boeing 787s in its fleet (a mix of 787-8s and 787-9s) and has been using them to modernize and expand its long haul fleet. LOT’s Dreamliners offer three classes of travel - business, premium economy, and economy class.
In addition to passenger amenities standard across the Dreamliners (such as higher onboard air humidity, LED lighting and larger windows), LOT Polish is steadily building a reputation for an improving soft onboard product.
The 787 Dreamliner has also enabled the airline to expand its range of long haul destinations. They fly to several destinations in North America and as far east as Singapore and Tokyo. LOT Polish Airlines has been flying to Beijing for seven years. Mr Milczarski said in his statement;
“The aviation market between Poland and China is developing very dynamically. In the last few years, there was also a significant increase in the number of passengers traveling between Poland and China - over 200,000 in 2019. This was possible thanks to, among others, LOT's direct flights.
"In 2019, the average passenger load factor onboard our aircraft on this route amounted to as many as 90 percent in the summer season and 86 percent until January 2020 in the winter season.”
These loads and the attractions of Beijing’s state of the art Daxing Airport helped convince LOT Polish to begin these new flights. LOT Polish has aspirations to turn its home base at Warsaw into a European mega-hub and with this in mind has timed these new flights to allow speedy connections in Warsaw. The airline claims it can funnel transiting passengers going to or from a range of European cities onto or off its Daxing flights in under one hour.
LOT Polish Airlines has been growing fast and these new flights to Beijing’s Daxing Airport are a part of that expansion strategy. But they also offer passengers more choice and if LOT Polish can pull off those speedy transit times in Warsaw, they have a pretty competitive product offering going across to China.