The FINANCIAL — LOT Polish Airlines, has flown 25,000 passengers since September 15, 2012, when it started operating in Georgia, the company claims.
20,300 of those passengers were from January till November 2011, while there were just 4,500 passengers in total in 2010.
“Our sales have increased by 250-300 percent compared to this period last year,” Giorgi Lipartiani, General Director of LOT Travel, General Sales Agent of LOT Polish Airlines, told The FINANCIAL. “The company’s head office always sets certain targets for us, and we not only meet these targets but more importantly, exceed them. LOT Polish Airlines is satisfied with our work. We started with three flights to Warsaw per week. In the summer we added a fourth flight and increased the capacity of the airplanes as well. By the end of March 2012 we plan to have five flights per week. We hope to double the results of 2011 by the end of 2012.”
Currently the Embraer 175, which has 82 seats, performs the flights. But in periods of increased demand the airplanes are changed to the Embraer 195 which has 120 seats.
The company flies to 57 destinations from Warsaw including America. Soon they will be adding Beijing, China. LOT isn’t a low cost airline, but the prices are lower compared to other companies, Lipartiani claims.
The starting prices of the most popular routes are as follows: Tbilisi-Warsaw return – 258 EUR, Tbilisi-Prague return – 272 EUR, Tbilisi-Amsterdam return – 297 EUR, Tbilisi-Nice return – 301 EUR, Tbilisi-Paris return – 309 EUR, Tbilisi-Munich return – 326 EUR, Tbilisi-New York return – 630 EUR, and Tbilisi-Chicago return – 742 EUR. These prices include taxes and fees. Special conditions are applied.
“Poland is a friend of our country and interest is quite high from both sides,” Lipartiani explained. “Most of the time Georgians tend to go directly to Warsaw, but in the autumn the situation changes and more passengers tend to continue their journey on to different final destinations. We offer the best prices on journeys to America and this route is very popular with Georgians.”
As well as the low prices LOT Travel sometimes offers discounts and actions to its customers. Currently they have a 20 percent discount for flights till the end of March. LOT also has ‘Crazy Wednesdays’ occasionally when prices of tickets are extremely low. They announce these on the day so customers don’t know about them in advance. The company has special offers for students and the young generation especially if they are travelling for educational reasons.
“We have 140 partners that sell our tickets in Georgia. We always inform them about these discounts and offers and I can say that the rate of sales significantly increases on these days,” said the General Director. “We are expecting our flights to be full from December 15 till January 15. Interest of Europeans in spending New Year in Georgia is increasing and we welcome this fact.”
LOT Travel provides a wide range of cultural, archaeological, educational, pilgrimage, folk and culinary tours, special and tailor made trips for kids and family vacations, business travel and MICE, combined tours with South Caucasus countries, airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rental and transportation services to all directions.
“We are maximally oriented at client satisfaction,” he continued. “Our incoming, outgoing and ticketing departments are constantly ready to provide professional advice and schedule a tour or travel service with high accuracy and attentiveness to the requirements.”
Sixteen airline companies are working in Georgia today. LOT Travel considers about seven of them its direct competitors in the market.
“The competition among airline companies has become healthier since we entered the market. We offer lower prices and yet the highest service. It’s clear that the number of our clients is consistently increasing,” Lipartiani stated.
“Pegasus started flying to Georgia a month and a half after our entrance. There are some other low cost airlines as well, but I don’t consider them to be our main competitors. So the existing low cost airlines don’t influence our sales negatively. Our services are totally different. For example Pegasus doesn’t serve free meals and its tickets are non-refundable. The vast majority of people using low cost airlines are those who have started travelling now and simply weren’t using airlines before.”
LOT Polish Airlines was founded in 1929 and is the oldest airline in Europe. The company is a member of Star Alliance, the biggest global airline alliance since 2003. LOT has been nominated eleven times as the best airline in Central and Eastern Europe.
The company will have eight Boeing Dreamliner 787s by 2015. LOT Polish Airlines will be the first airline in Europe to receive such airplanes. The number of seats in the Boeings varies from 210 to 330. They will be used for long-haul flights including to America.
“We have experienced a huge increase during the short period that LOT Travel has existed. I hope that in the future we’ll have fully booked flights and will need a Dreamliner 787 for this destination as well,” Lipartiani said.
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