LOT Dreamliner to fly to Sri Lanka, Maldives to bring back Poles
A Dreamliner operated by Poland's national carrier LOT will fly to Sri Lanka and the Maldives on Thursday to collect Polish passengers unable to return home due to the situation in the Middle East, Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak has said.
The Boeing 787 aircraft will first land in Sri Lanka, then in the Maldives, before returning to Poland on Friday. Klimczak said the passengers on board would mainly be Polish clients of smaller travel agencies.
"This is a response from our national carrier to the needs of smaller travel agencies, which have less potential and do not have the same capabilities as larger ones that cooperate with various airlines and can afford different kinds of charter flights," the minister said.
He added that the operation was intended not only to evacuate Poles from areas affected by the conflict but also to help passengers who had planned transfers in the region and became stranded elsewhere in the world.
Klimczak also said that due to the situation in the Middle East, LOT would send a larger aircraft to India on Saturday, replacing a Boeing 787-8 with a Boeing 787-9, which would provide 40 additional seats.
Following Saturday's air strikes on Iran carried out by the United States and Israel, and retaliatory actions by Iranian forces, a number of Middle Eastern countries closed their airspace. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency warned of a high risk to civil aviation in the region and recommended that carriers suspend flights to and from the Middle East until March 6.
LOT's fleet includes 15 Dreamliners, eight Boeing 787-8 aircraft and seven Boeing 787-9s, used on long-haul routes including New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seoul, Los Angeles and Tokyo. (PAP)
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