Radio Polonia 8 June 2005

Poland's national airline carrier LOT plans to restart regular flights to Asia in six months
time.The airline intends to make Warsaw a regional transfer hub for passengers from
China and India.

If Polish passengers want to fly to China or India now, they have to transfer in London,
Frankfurt or Paris. There are no direct flights out of Warsaw. But that's going to change in
6 months time as Polish airlines LOT prepares to plot a path for its first flight to New
Delhi, Leszek Chorzewski from LOT says.

Officials at LOT hope that the New Delhi destination will generate more bookings in the off
season. Fast paced market deregulation and an expanding travel industry have sparked a
revolution in the skies over Central and eastern Europe. Just over a year after the EU was
expanded to take in ten new members no-frills air travel has really taken off. Currently
there are seven budget airlines servicing Poland. LOT recently entered the market with its
own no-frills airline Centralwings.

Though only three percent of Poles fly on a regular basis, the number of passengers
handled by Warsaw's international airport spun upward by 18%. Analysts argue that this
may be one reason why LOT has set its sights on Asia.

To serve new destinations, LOT is planning to add to its existing fleet either the Airbus
A350 or Boeing B787s. Negotiations are underway at the moment and a decision should
be made soon. For the time being however Poles wishing to travel to Asia will have to hop
from one plane to another to get to their destination making the trip much longer.