LOT Polish challenges low-cost carriers in Gdansk
LOT Polish Airlines continues its expansion of routes from Poland's secondary airports.
Amid an ever-growing presence of low-cost carriers across Poland’s secondary cities and capacity constraints at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), LOT Polish Airlines has continued to expand direct flights from the country’s regions, including its latest addition of three routes from Gdansk, Poland.
On December 10, 2025, LOT Polish Airlines announced that in late April 2026, it will launch direct flights from Gdansk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN) to Bergen Airport (BGO), Brussels Airport (BRU), and Oslo Gardermoen Airport (OSL).
Together with the previously announced itinerary to Istanbul Airport (IST), the Polish carrier is continuing to expand its presence in northern Poland, it pointed out. “The launch of three new connections from the Gdańsk airport is another step in the process of expanding the network of regional flights operated by LOT Polish Airlines,” the carrier stated.
Michał Fijoł, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LOT Polish Airlines, said that the push to expand the airline’s presence at Poland’s regional airports has been one of the pillars of the airline’s strategy.
“Northern Poland is a very important market for us – it is highly dynamic, enjoys great potential, and offers good business- and tourism-related opportunities.”
Fijoł added that he is convinced that with the addition of the three new routes, as well as the connection to IST, even more people will come to visit the region, which is already highly popular with tourists.
Flights to BGO, BRU, and OSL will depart GDN three, four, and five times per week, respectively, operated with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the trio of itineraries. Flights to IST are also scheduled to be flown with the same type.
According to Cirium’s Diio Mi, LOT Polish Airlines has scheduled 16.9% more departing flights from GDN and Kraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK) to other European destinations between April 2026 and October 2026, compared to the same period in 2025.
(The data does not yet include the new flights from GDN to BGO, BRU, and OSL.)
On October 22, LOT Polish Airlines unveiled three new short-haul routes from KRK, with the airline offering direct connections to Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN), Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD), and Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) starting on March 30, 2026.
“This is yet another step in the ongoing plan to develop the regional network, which connects the potential of Polish cities with Europe’s major tourist and business destinations,” it said at the time.
Over the past few weeks, low-cost carriers, especially Wizz Air, have announced significant expansions of their networks from Poland. The Hungarian airline, which has been re-pivoting to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), announced that it would add a ninth A321neo to its base at GDN, reinforcing its “leading market position in the region.”
While BRU, or its low-cost carrier airport, Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL), has not been served from GDN by any airline since Wizz Air stopped flying the route to CRL in October 2017, Norwegian and Wizz Air fly from GDN to both BGO and OSL. (Norwegian flies to BGO seasonally, at least in 2026.)
Norway is home to a large Polish diaspora, with over 111,000 Polish citizens living in the country as of January 1, according to Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå, SSB).
Still, in April, Ryanair will be the top airline at GDN with 176 weekly departures. The Irish low-cost carrier has not yet scheduled flights from GDN to BGO, BRU, or OSL, or CRL, which would be its alternative to BRU.
Wizz Air is so far scheduled to have 161 weekly flights from the airport, being the second-busiest airline at GDN, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.
Rytis Beresnevicius
LOT Polish Airlines, or any airline for that matter, is also struggling to expand at the country’s main gateway, WAW. While there are plans to build a new airport as part of the Central Communication Port (Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, CPK) project, with the airport being designed to “handle between 34 and 44 million passengers, depending on demand, upon its opening in 2032,” WAW is essentially full.
Airport Coordination Limited’s (ACL) WAW summer 2026 initial coordination report showed that airlines had requested 170,626 slots at the airport. They received 126,331 slots, or 74% of the total demand, with the coordinator clearing 109,106 slots, or 86.4% of the total allocation.
“11,520 slots had to be adjusted due to Schengen, Non-Schengen, and Main Terminal limits,” ACL, the independent slot coordinator, which oversees many airports across the world, including London Heathrow Airport (LHR), said. The remaining slots were not allocated due to runway and night constraints and arrival/departure turnaround feasibility.
LOT Polish Airlines is set to control 73,313 of the 126,331 movements at the airport, and, despite losing 1,763 slots during the summer 2026 season, should increase its scheduled seats by more than 168,000.
During the upcoming summer 2026 season, the Polish flag carrier will offer double-daily departures from WAW to OSL, competing with Norwegian, and up to four daily departures to BRU.
Brussels Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines’ partner in Star Alliance, also has up to double-daily departures between WAW and BRU, except for July and August 2026. Then, it will offer six weekly flights on the route, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed.
Comments ()