Direct flights to Asia from Poland

Why is it that no airlines fly to Warsaw from Asia, except for Warsaw to Hanoi by LOT?

In recent years, airlines such as Etihad, Emirates, Air China have been expanding in Europe, while other Asian airlines like Singapore, Thai, Malaysian and Korean have big established presences in Europe.

My question: is it lack of demand, or is it a bureaucratic/political problem preventing asian airlines flying into Warsaw? I've heard that LOT are thinking of using their 787s to Asia, but there is nothing concrete or specific said about where, and of course there are the interminable delays in production for the 787.

My reason for asking: I live in New Zealand and it takes forever to get to Poland, and one less leg on the journey would be a godsend.

Exactly.

Warsaw-Hanoi is popular because of the links with Vietnam - but apart from that, there's just no demand. What demand exists is catered for by a large variety of connections, so - pretty needless.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Hong Kong connection open up though - Warsaw is becoming rapidly a major financial centre.

What are the particular links with Vietnam that generated this popularity? Have you flown this route?


I was particularly thinking that the financial sector factor should cause some demand. I imagine that bankers are much less tolerant of an 18-20 hour connection to get 7500kms than I am.

LOT is under privatization process already
wbj.pl/article-55101-no-sector-investor-interested-in-lot.html
it seems they don't have enough finance to fly everywhere.

Lots of Vietnamese folks in Poland.


Couldn't disagree with you more. Quite a few banks are foreign owned, and for bonus points are spread around Poland.


There would have to be daily flights. I think it would make more sense to open up a route to one of the star alliance hubs in Asia, either Beijing, Singapore, or Seoul and use their codeshare agreements to get passengers where they need to go with the least amount of hassle.

Long standing links between the PRL and Vietnam, carried on to the present day - therefore, enough popularity to make it worth flying. It would've originally been flown for political reasons, but nowadays, there's certainly enough demand with the Vietnamese types to make it worthwhile.


I should've qualified the statement with "regionally" - it's by far the biggest financial centre in this part of the world.

(nothing compared to Frankfurt/Paris/London/Zurich...but)


Singapore would make the most sense, surely?

Dubai could be an interesting choice, but I guess not easy to accomplish?

No ME airlines are part of staralliance, so no codeshares. I'm guessing they would want to take the longhaul traffic to asia.

I guess Prague or Kiev would be relevant comparisons. Both seem to have more connection to Asia than Warsaw. I know Warsaw doesn't have the tourist cache of Prague, but it should have as much economic importance and, especially, more political importance. I just found this article about LOT and Lotniska Chopina wanting to create a hub. I hope this isn't just speculation, but my Polish googling skills are not highly developed enough to pick good keyword search terms....

Yesterday Boeing rolled out the first 787 that's about to be delivered to ANA, the launch customer.

boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=13&item=1633

To answer your question, frankly it's supply and demand. Long distance flights are very expensive to operate and the flights have to be booked up to make a profit. To open a new route an airline has to hire local gate agents, mechanics, rampers, supervisors, etc., etc. To pay for that you'd need basically daily flights or you won't make any money. Many European companies have factories in Asia but those corporations are usually based in Germany, France, The Netherlands, etc. Therefore most Asian flights originate in those countries. There are rumors of SAS starting up a Shanghai service, it'd be eather from Copenhagen or Stockholm, either one is very close to Poland.

I can absolutely appreciate your point about supply and demand, but surely any airline has the same problem with airport services, and that would partly come down to how well run the airport was. Google tells me that Warsaw Airport Services [ was-handling.pl/en/services ] , for example, can provide all the necessary services to airlines flying in the Chopin airport.

Good point about the factories though: I guess Poland is much more a recipient of Foreign Direct Investment these days than an investor. Still, I don't quite get it and I wonder if there are other factors holding it back or preventing, say, Air China, Singapore Airlines, or Hainan Airlines from giving it a go. Poland is the 8th largest economy in in EFTA, and right now it is presently much greater expansion opportunities for Asian companies than several of the traditional major European economies.