Polish flag carrier sees recovery from pandemic slump in 2021

PLL LOT, Poland's flagship airline, carried about 4.2 million passengers in 2021, a significantly higher number compared to just 3.1 million in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has reported.

In 2019, the number of passengers reached a record high of 10 million so, despite growth, last year's figure still constitutes just 42 percent of the carrier's peak capacity.

"The times of the pandemic have particularly strongly affected the aviation industry," Michal Fijol, a LOT management board member, was quoted as saying in the company's news release on Saturday.

"However, PLL LOT devoted this time to exploiting all available business opportunities and to expanding where the demand was the greatest, i.e. in holiday and cargo connections," Fijol added.

LOT says it performed four times more charter flights in 2021 compared to 2020. In cargo connections, the carrier doubled the total amount of transported goods in 2021 from 2020.