Over the next several months, LOT Polish Airlines will add service to Seoul and six new European cities from its growing Budapest, Hungary, hub.
Service to Seoul will begin Sept. 22 and operate three times a week on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. LOT CEO Rafal Milczarski said "tourism and business potential between Budapest and Seoul is huge." About 70,000 passengers travel that route each year, and more than 750,000 passengers travel between Seoul and Central and Eastern Europe every year.
On March 30, LOT also will add service from Budapest to Sofia, Bulgaria; Prague; Belgrade, Serbia; Stuttgart, Germany; Bucharest, Romania; and Brussels, bringing its total destinations from Budapest to 12.
LOT has made Budapest its first base of operations outside Poland, and its initial growth there included service to both New York and Chicago that began last year. Those are the first direct flights between the U.S. and Hungary since Malev Hungarian Airlines ceased operations in 2012. As part of the new schedule, LOT also will cut the frequency of the New York service from four flights per week to three and will make the service to Chicago seasonal for the summer rather than year-round.
"Demand for flights to and from the USA is highly seasonal, which highly affects profitability of flights," according to Milczarski. The new European routes also will help boost demand on the U.S. routes as a feeder network, he said.