LOT Polish Airlines — Flights, Punctuality & Cancellations in 2021
After we’ve analyzed some of Europe’s biggest carriers, such as SAS, Iberia, or Air France, we continue the most detailed airline analysis with Poland’s LOT. Therefore, we analyzed LOT’s performance in 2021: Flight rankings, punctuality reports, and cancellation rates. Moreover, we benchmarked the airline’s flight performance against regional and global averages. Here’s what’s contained in detail:
Flight Analysis
Monthly Flight Overview
Global & Europen Ranking By Number of Flights
Pre-COVID Benchmark
Flight Punctuality
Monthly Punctuality Overview
Global & European Ranking By Punctuality
Flight Cancellations
Monthly Cancellation Overview
Global & European Ranking By Cancellation Rate
LOT Polish Airlines — Flight Analysis
Let’s start the analysis with details about carrier’s flights from February to June 2021. Then, on top of the overall numbers, we also provide information on the airline’s share in terms of EMEA traffic and the carrier’s ranking compared to other European and global airlines. Finally, and as the icing on the cake, we compare LOT’s performance in 2021 to pre-COVID results from 2019. So let’s dive into it!
Monthly Flight Overview
Like many other European airlines, LOT operated a meager number of flights at the beginning of the year. With 1,514 flights in February, LOT was miles away from pre-COVID performances. Even though, the managed to increase their flight volume significantly from February to June, jumping from 1,514 to 4,677 flights per month, they were outperformed by several other European carriers over that timespan.
| Month | No. Flights | vs. prev. Month |
|---|---|---|
| February | 1,514 | |
| March | 2,290 | 51.3%  |
| April | 2,565 | 12.0% |
| May | 2,806 | 9.4% |
| June | 4,677 | 66.7% |
| Avg. ’21 | 2,770 | 34.9% |
The below chart on the right side perfectly illustrates LOT’s steady flight growth in the first half of 2021. Depicted on the left is LOT’s share in relation to total EMEA volume. Again, we can see that other airlines managed to grow quicker and that only the month of June got them back on track. Looking at the bigger picture, we can still see a growth in flight share from 0.74% in February to 1.07% in June. Looks like better days are ahead!
Global & European Ranking By Number of Flights
Based on the discussed growth rate, LOT has managed to almost maintain their position in the airline ranking based on number of flights within the EMEA region. Wandering around position 30 shows that their growth pattern is similar to most other airlines in the region. Globally, however they rose from 101 in February to 72 in June on the global ranking underlining that the aviation industry in the EMEA region is growing faster than elsewhere.
| Month | Domestic Rank | EMEA Rank | Global Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | 1 | 34 | 101 |
| March | 1 | 28 | 91 |
| April | 1 | 31 | 87 |
| May | 1 | 31 | 85 |
| June | 1 | 28 | 72 |
| Average ’21 | 1 | 30 | 87 |
Pre-COVID Benchmark
The comparison to pre-COVID figures is probably one of the most exciting parts of our airline analysis. Comparing 2019 and 2021, we still see a large cap in flight numbers that is steadily closing but doesn’t match the rate of other competitors. Whereas in February, LOT’s traffic was down 84.2%, the carrier reduced the cap to 57.7% in June. That is an improvement of 26.5%. Wizz Air managed an improvement of 44% over the same timespan.
| Month | Flights 2021 | Flights 2019 | ’21 vs. ’19 (abs) | ’21 vs. ’19 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | 1,514 | 9,636 | 8,122  | 84.2% |
| March | 2,290 | 10,739 | 8,449 | 78.6% |
| April | 2,565 | 10,875 | 8,310 | 76.4% |
| May | 2,806 | 11,386 | 8,580 | 75.3% |
| June | 4,677 | 11,073 | 6,396 | 57.7% |
| Avg. ’21 | 2,770 | 15,395 | 7,971 | 74.4% |
LOT Polish Airlines – Flight Punctuality
In the following chapter, we take a deeper look at Polish carriers flight performance regarding punctuality. Again, we benchmark the airline’s results with EMEA averages and provide a domestic, regional, and global ranking.
Monthly Puncutality Overview
In terms of on-time performance, LOT achieved a respective result. With 88.6%, the carrier’s on-time performance is way above to the EMEA average and 9 pp better than the global average. LOT does not even have to fear the comparison to the top players of the region (Ryanair >92%, Aeroflot >92%, KLM >90%). They should work hard to keep that high level as we already see a small dip in June as the flight volume increased.
| February | March | April | May | June | Monthly Average ’21 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOT | 80.8% | 92.7% | 91.7% | 89.4% | 88.3% | 88.6% |
| EMEA Average | 73.9% | 85.7% | 85.6% | 85.2% | 83.6% | 82.8% |
| Global Average | 77.7% | 82.5% | 81.9% | 80.9% | 76.8% | 79.9% |
LOT Polish Airlines Flights — Global & European Ranking By Punctuality
Based on the average performance, the carrier ranks in the upper midfield from a global point of view. Moreover, compared to EMEA airlines, LOT ranks on positions 50 on average.
| Month | Domestic Rank | EMEA Rank | Global Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | 1 | 65 | 140 |
| March | 1 | 39 | 70 |
| April | 1 | 37 | 68 |
| May | 1 | 64 | 109 |
| June | 1 | 44 | 73 |
| Average ’21 | 1 | 50 | 92 |
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LOT Polish Airlines Flight Cancellations
In the last chapter of this report, we take a detailed look at LOT’s flight cancellations. Similar to the previous chapter, we put results in relation to regional averages and provide rankings.
Monthly Cancellation Overview
With a monthly flight cancellation average of 0.7%, the Polish airlines did a fantastic job so far. The airline’s result is much better than the EMEA average (3.9%) and miles ahead of the global average (7.5%). However, in May and March, the cancellation rate slightly increased to 1.5%. In the following months, it decreased again to a staggering 0.2% in June. Hopefully, they are able to keep that level up as the operational volume further increases.
| February | March | April | May | June | Monthly Average ’21 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOT | 0.5% | 1.5% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.7% |
| EMEA Average | 6.8% | 2.7% | 2.5% | 4.0% | 3.6% | 3.9% |
| Global Average | 8.7% | 6.1% | 6.3% | 7.7% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
LOT Polish Airlines Flights — European Ranking by Cancellations
Compared to other EMEA airlines, LOT ranks 76th on average. From a global point of view, LOT ranks 124th on average.
| Month | Domestic Rank | EMEA Rank | Global Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | 1 | 57 | 100 |
| March | 1 | 91 | 157 |
| April | 1 | 81 | 131 |
| May | 1 | 74 | 124 |
| June | 1 | 75 | 110 |
| Average ’21 | 1 | 76 | 124 |
Used Data
The shown information is based on OAG data and internal data sources. Rankings only included airlines that operated more than 500 flights in the respective month. However, the global benchmark includes all tracked flights. On average, 200 airlines are included in each month’s analysis. Whenever stated, EMEA refers to airlines based in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa.
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