LOT Polish Airlines publishes results for the first three quarters of 2011

Warsaw, 17th October 2011 – During a press conference at the company’s headquarters, Marcin Piróg, CEO of LOT Polish Airlines, presented the three-quarterly results for 2011.

It can be seen from the results that both LOT’s rational financial management and an enormous commitment on the part of Management Board and staff alike have produced a substantial effect, said Mr Piróg, LOT’s CEO. I believe that this trend of improved financial results will be a continuing one and that we are set to become a fully profitable and competitive airline and leader in this part of Europe – added.

During the first three quarters of this year, carriage on scheduled routes showed a dynamic of 111% in comparison with 2010. The dynamic of domestic traffic showed growth of 21% and for LOT’s medium-haul flights showed growth of 11%. For long-haul flights, the figures stand at 95% in comparison with last year, which is connected with a decrease in operations on routes to and from North America and Asia. LOT has not been investing in increasing its fleet of Boeing 767’s since the company is awaiting delivery of its Boeing 787’s and this is one of the underlying causes of a stagnation in the growth of its Atlantic carriage figures. The dynamics for the carriage of business class passengers for the period between January and September evinces a significant improvement of 21% when set against the figures for 2010. In September alone, the growth dynamic in this area was 130%.

The average ratio of passenger load factor for the entire nine-month period was approximately 75% and, in the high season, which is to say, the third quarter, it was 81%.

Income from the company’s primary operations for the three quarters rose by 6%, while costs rose by just 4%, despite the fact that the cost of fuel alone rose by all of 27%. These higher fuel prices mean that LOT’s expenditure in this area was 221 million zloty higher than in 2010.

The financial results for the first three quarters show a decrease in losses in annual terms from minus 96 million zloty in 2010 to minus 52 million this year. The results thus indicate an improvement of 44 million zloty, and of 225 million when fluctuations in fuel prices and exchange rates are excluded. Profits of plus 67.6 million zloty were recorded for the company’s primary operations, as compared with 56.4 million for the same period last year. The post-tax result for January to September was plus 5.4 million zloty and was subject to the most recently observed and recorded fluctuations in exchange rates.

Another area which should be mentioned is that of the punctuality parameters for flights. In the third quarter, LOT displayed an increase from 76% to 81% in comparison to last year, while for the entire nine-month period, the figure has increased from 79,6% to 83.4% in 2011.

The regularity of flights also increased to 97.8% from the beginning of this year.