LOT Polish Airlines will be launching additional repatriation flights across the world as part of its #LOTdoDomu (LOTtoHome) operation. The flights, which will travel to destinations including Sydney, Manila, Rio de Janeiro and Cancun, will bring Polish citizens currently stranded abroad back home.

LOT Polish Airlines continues to make arrangements for repatriation flights which will help Polish citizens stranded abroad as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Where will LOT Polish Airlines be flying to over the next week?

As a result of a ban on international travel implemented by the Polish government last Saturday, LOT Polish Airlines cancelled all its flights for a period of 10 days. Currently the airline says it will not be running any normal services until 28 March, although it is likely this restriction on flights will be extended given the worsening situation across Europe.

Despite the cancellation of its normal flights, LOT Polish Airlines has a long list of repatriation flights planned. In total, the airline will be flying to 51 different cities across the world before the end of next week.

While tickets for flights from many destinations have already sold out, they are still available from a number of major cities, including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Dubai, London and Miami. The full list of planned flights is available on LOT Polish Airlines’ website.

The Polish government’s involvement

Given the current circumstances and the complex situation in countries around the world, the organization of LOT Polish Airlines’ repatriation operation appears to have involved significant input from the Polish government.

As reported by Rynek Lotniczy, Polish Prime Minister Matusz Morawiecki personally stepped in to ensure repatriation flights were arranged for Polish citizens stranded in the Philippines.

In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Morawiecki said, “I received disturbing information about the situation of Poles in the Philippines and the need to prepare special return flights for them. I intervened in this matter at LOT Polish Airlines and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” (Translated)

On Tuesday, extensive lockdown procedures were implemented across the Philippines in order to slow down the spread of COVID-19, leaving foreigners in the country in uncertainty.

#LOTdoDomu

LOT Polish Airlines’ #LOTdoDomu operation has been running since 15 March and has so far brought 22,000 Polish citizens back home from across the world. In total the airline has operated 116 flights as part of its repatriation effort so far.

The airline says on its website that it is running the operation for the sake of all Polish citizens who are not able to cross back into Poland by road. Many other national airlines around the world are running their own repatriation operations in order to bring stranded citizens back home. Many of these operations are in cooperation with their national governments.

At first, these repatriation flights centered on China as that was the initial epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. But now that the disease has become a pandemic, repatriation flights have gone global.