LO creating BUD hub

[Isochronous]

LO is the Polish flag carrier, and, unbeknown to me until now, have been quietly building up a secondary hub at BUD in addition to their home base at WAW. They currently run services from BUD to Warsaw, Krakow, New York JFK, Chicago, and London City. Belgrade, Brussels and Bucharest are commencing in September with signs of more to come as they base a E190 fleet at BUD.

LOT Polish Plans To Create Hub In Budapest - Live and Let's Fly

Polish carrier LOT, a Star Alliance member, is creating a hub…outside of Poland. The flag carrier is slowly but steadily expanding operations in Budapest, Hungary. LOT already serves Chicago (ORD), Krakow (KRK), London (LCY), New York (JFK), and Warsaw (WAW) from Budapest (BUD). LOT plans to...

liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com

Polish carrier LOT, a Star Alliance member, is creating a hub…outside of Poland. The flag carrier is slowly but steadily expanding operations in Budapest, Hungary.
LOT already serves Chicago (ORD), Krakow (KRK), London (LCY), New York (JFK), and Warsaw (WAW) from Budapest (BUD).

LOT plans to establish an Embraer E195 base in Budapest, where it recently added flights to Brussels (BRU) and Bucharest (OTP) in the schedule. Those new flights will begin on September 02, 2019. LOT sees the low-cost competition in Budapest, but also sees an opening for full-service airlines. Another carrier did not rise up when Malev, the defunct flag carrier of Hungary, went bust in 2012, creating an opportunity which still lingers today.

LOT Polish Airlines CEO Rafał Milczarski told ATW:

With these new flights we will start developing transfer traffic via Budapest Airport. That applies to passengers from Bucharest, who connect in Budapest, i.e., to London City, New York and Chicago, as well as to Brussels. The offer of transit connections will definitely increase the attractiveness of Budapest Airport.

More LOT Expansion
LOT carried 8.2 million passengers in 2018 and hopes to carry 10 million in 2019. To that end, it will take delivery of nine additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft this year (it already has five in the fleet). It will also add four 787s to increase its Dreamliner fleet to 15. Throw in its 34 Embraer regional jets and LOT is well-positioned to continue its growth.

CONCLUSION
Recognizing the downward pressure on pricing from Wizz Air and Ryanair, LOT must be very careful not to expand too ambitiously. But from the comfort of my armchair, it certainly seems like a smart move to fill the void still lingering from Malev in one of Central Europe’s most vibrant cities.

 

[AIRwin]

Trying to fill the void left by oneworld member MA in 2012?

 

[Isochronous]

Trying to fill the void left by oneworld member MA in 2012?

The lost of Malev was a big blow to oneworld - it's the missing link in Europe.

 

[dajop]

The lost of Malev was a big blow to oneworld - it's the missing link in Europe.

Yeh, oneworld has the outer circle of Europe covered, but definitely not the middle:

 

[moa999]

Well it did have Air Berlin for a short while.
And if ABB comes back to the fold I guess Air Italy is a possibility.

 

[Isochronous]

Exciting times for Warsaw - looks like the Poles want to make it the leading European airport. Look at some of the concept designs!

A new airport in Poland could become one of the busiest in the world – these design concepts give a first glance at how it could look

One architect proposing design concepts for the airport says the transport hub "would cover an area larger than the entirety of Manhattan."

www.businessinsider.com

Seems Emirates is their role model:

How LOT Polish Airlines Is Starting To Rival Middle Eastern Airlines

simpleflying.com

 

[Isochronous]

LO has just launched BUD-ICN service: LOT Polish Airlines Inaugurates New Budapest - Seoul Route - Simple Flying

This could provide a creative way to use LM to fly Star from Asia into Central Europe.