During the first half of 2001 LOT Polish Airlines flew 1,508,000 passengers, 18.9% more than the number flown in the same period of last year. The growth was achieved in all areas of activity: international and domestic scheduled flights and chartered flights. The largest increase was noted in domestic flights with 307,300 passengers during the first six months of the year. That is an increase of 52%. The chartered flight increase is estimated at 21.1% with 143,700 passengers. The occupancy index reached 57.6% and was 8.7% lower than the index for the last year.

During the first half of 2001 LOT realised its plan to build a hub in Warsaw - 35,953 flights were performed i.e. 12,000 more than in the analogous period last year.

More flights also means increased total income. The total income growth equalled 110.7%. However, the net result closed with a loss of 251.7 million zloty.

The company«s result was effected by a range of external factors observed throughout the entire airline market. The most basic factors include a declining trend in world air travel, high costs of aviation fuel, increased value of the Polish zloty as well as costs related to the construction of the LOT hub at WAW and the declining rate of growth in the Polish and world economies, resulting in a drop in air travel, especially business travel.

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