LOT's Dreamliners link Budapest to New York

Picture: LOT

Today's announcement by LOT is an example of the interesting possibilities enabled by a combination of Open Skies plus the common EU market.

After quite a few years devoid of scheduled long haul links to the US, Budapest, is going to get direct links to New York and Chicago.

But this time is going to be a Polish airline providing the service, as LOT is going to base one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the the Hungarian capital.

New York was one of the few long haul routes operated, back in the day, by the, now defunct, Hungarian national carrier Malev, that used Boeing 767 aircraft.

While Hungary does not have a "flag carrier" of the traditional sort, the gap left by Malev has been filled up, mainly by LCCs such as Budapest-based Wizz Air (now one of Europe's largest airlines), but also, as we see now, by other carriers able to fill specific market niches.

LOT's idea is to initially deploy mixed Polish-Hungarian crews on the route, and at a later stage transition to fully Hungarian ones, giving a more local dimension to this project.

Will Hungary's find in Polish airline LOT its long-missing long-haul carrier?