Can Dreamliner pull LOT out of financial nose dive?
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
16.11.2012 13:50
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NFP 12 11 16 DREAMLINER.mp3
Poland’s LOT airlines has taken delivery of the first of eight Boeing Dreamliner 787s: but can the new aircraft help move the loss-making national carrier back into the black?
photo - PAP/Jacek Turczyk
LOT will be spending 200 million dollars for each of the eight Dreamliners ordered across the Atlantic. Its Dreamliner fleet will be the first among European air carriers.
Poland’s national carrier - which will soon be announcing a wide-ranging restructurisation scheme - hopes that the new fleet of aircraft will help the airline out of the red and into the black.
"Savings derived from decreased fuel consumption and lesser technical maintenance costs contribute to lower overall costs of flights,” says LOT President Marcin Pirog
“Even with very restrained calculations we are expecting up to 25 percent higher income, which will substantially alter our financial standing," he adds.
But airline industry observers are not so sure that the Drealiner, by itself, can put Poland’s national carrier into profit.
"This is not enough for such a small airline to survive. Dreamliners are a step forward, as they are more economical. But we have to remember about the lack of progress regarding the privatization of LOT," Adrian Furgalski, aviation transport expert from TOR consultants tells or reporter Slawek Szefs. (pg)