LOT's Brazilian deal

LOT Polish Airlines has concluded an agreement with Brazilian Embraer to purchase 12 Embraer 175 (E175) jets, plus two options and 10 purchase rights. The total value of the agreement is $372 million (zł.919), but could reach as high as $744 (zł.1,839) million if all options and purchase rights are exercised.

"LOT is a long-standing Embraer client, starting out in 1999 with ERJ 145 regional jets. With this order, it will become Europe's largest E-Jets operator," said Mauro Kern, an executive vice president at Embraer.

LOT was the first airline in Europe to operate planes in the E-Jets family, when the E170 flew out of its Warsaw hub in March 2004. The new E175 jets will complement LOT's existing Embraer fleet of 10 E170s and six E175s, and are expected to help the airline expand its route network.

"Our current fleet of E-Jets is performing smoothly and the additional E175s are the right aircraft to achieve our strategy of network development," said LOT's CEO Piotr Siennicki. "It also offers excellent synergy with our current narrow-body jets, enabling us to right-size aircraft to a route based on demand variations due to seasonal or specific time-of-day influences, thus improving our results," he added.

The news of the Embraer agreement came, however, at the same time as news that LOT's order of Boeing 787 Dreamliners will likely be delayed for the second time. The firm originally placed an order for seven aircraft in 2005, but increased that number to eight last year. The first plane was to be delivered in November 2008.

Boeing, though, has announced that the first test flight will be carried out in June of this year, three months later than previously planned. As a result, it is unlikely that the first Dreamliner will arrive this year.