OLT Express

[mikkie4]

would there be a market for easyjet to fly from SEN to poland?

[wawkrk]

It is very difficult to compete with the hugely overstaffed monopoly of LOT.
They have strangled Polish air travel for many years.Mainline LOT staff look down upon Eurolot staff as being second class.

[davidjohnson6]

wawkrk - in the mid 1990s, British Airways was overstaffed and functioned as a quasi-monopoly
BA had kept UK flying under their control for many years - only bmi kept them vaguely honest.
BA mainline staff then looked with disdain and contempt at tiny budget carriers Easyjet and Ryanair and their staff

[pwalhx]

And still look down on their passengers as an inconvenience.

[eu01]

I've spotted some rumours suggesting that the unfortunate OLT Express was created mostly as a tool to deliberately burn the investors money. This airline has been owned in its entirety by quasi-bank investment company that has apparently implemented a variation of the pyramid scheme. They collected large sums of money promising their investors high rates of return, unrealistically high. And from the very beginning they knew that the money would never return to their owners. But why they decided to own an airline? Having "earned" substantial sums of money for themselves, being unable to return the original value, they needed an easy way to squander the rest. Fast, effectively and without criminal charges. As the money loss results from a mistaken investment, can they bee held responsible under the law?

As we learn, they needed just four months to burn the money. Didn't even negotiate the airport fees, provided catering on 20-euro flights, flown jets with just one pax on board etc., it's easy. The money evaporated.

Can anybody from Poland shed some light on this subject?
¨

[alm1]

This is not limited to OLT Express though. Last time I flew Eurolot, for 25 eur I got catering (free wine included), free luggage and even an Ipad during the flight. There were 11 passengers on an ATR.

[DublinPole]

alm1 when did you fly? Prices like that were virtually unheard of until LOT lowered them when OLT came on the scene.

Meanwhile in Poland there is now allegations that there was some conspiracy against OLT Express to protect LOT (use google Translate) from state agencies.

Amber Gold: Tajna notatka dowodem na operacj

There is also an anticorruption investigation going into Modlin Airport as well that was revealed at around the same time.

[harriewillem]

Panta Holdings buys OLT Express Germany

OLT Express Owner Sees Low Labor Costs Key To Profit

Good for all people at OLT and Contact Air

Panta Holdings is also the current owner of Denim Air and past owner of VLM

German: OLT Express Germany mit neuem Eigentümer

[wawkrk]

I saw a massive illuminated advert in Krakow last night for the renamed Eurolot.com It showed the brand new route network also some routes with Embraer 175. Routes I cannot remember seeing in the past Zurich,Florence,Aarhus,Zadar,Split,Dubrovnik. but I am not sure which are actually new I have not used them for a while. Fares from 195PLN.(38GBP)

Aviation in Poland has huge potential and has been strangled for years by state run LOT. The percentage of the population who fly are about on a par with some third world nations.
If LOT- Eurolot.com get their act together with modern management methods and top heavy staff reductions, they could compete with Wizz at least in Poland.