LOT to spend $200 mln to expand fleet and Warsaw hub

LOT Polish Airlines is planning to increase its fleet by an additional 10 planes. The airline is preparing a $200 million contract for seven 48-seat Brazilian Embraer planes and three Boeing 737s which will be delivered by the end of the year. It is necessary in order to increase the number of connections going through Okecie airport. LOT wants to make Warsaw a regional transit center. "We have 800 transit connections through Warsaw, but by Nov. 1 that number will increase to 3,000," said management board president Jan Litwinski. LOT officials also said it will increase the number of transatlantic connections from Krakow this summer to three per week to Chicago and four per week to New York. Krakow's Balice airport is second largest in Poland with 420,000 passengers going through last year. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 2) M.M.