LOT to deploy B787-9s on North American routes from 2Q18

LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin) will deploy the first B787-9 on the Warsaw Chopin-Chicago O'Hare route from the end of March or early April 2018.

The Polish state-owned carrier said in a statement it plans to introduce the B787-9 on the route to New York JFK from May 2018 and to Toronto Pearson from July. While the aircraft will be used predominantly on the North Atlantic routes, LOT might also operate some of its Seoul Incheon services with this model.

LOT intends to take delivery of three B787-9s in 2018. The aircraft will be on lease from Air Lease Corporation and equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. The fourth aircraft of this type will join the airline's fleet in 2019. The B787-9s will supplement the existing fleet of eight B787-8s and support the carrier's expansion from its primary base at Warsaw Chopin.

According to the carrier's statement, the B787-9s will be configured in a three-class layout with twenty-four seats in business class (up from sixteen in B787-8s), twenty-one in premium economy (same as in B787-8s) and 249 in economy class (up from 213 in B787-8s). In total, they will seat up to 294 passengers, forty-two more than the smaller B787s.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, in summer 2018 LOT plans to operate long-haul flights from Warsaw to Chicago O'Hare (11x weekly), New York JFK, Toronto Pearson (9x weekly each), Newark, Seoul Incheon (5x weekly each), Los Angeles Int'l, Singapore Changi, Tokyo Narita (4x weekly each) and Beijing Capital (3x weekly). It also plans to operate trans-Atlantic routes from Kraków and Budapest.