LOT's fortunes triumph over weak market

National carrier PLL LOT posted a larger than forecast zl. 109 million net profit last year after a zl. 640 million loss in 2001, the company's CEO Jan Litwinski said on Tuesday. LOT, hit by the slump in the aviation industry following the September 11 attacks on the U.S. and the collapse of its strategic investor Swissair, had officially forecast its net profit at zl. 28 million, but signalled it might be higher. LOT, which last year signed a cooperation and code-sharing agreement with Lufthansa in a bid to join the German airline-led Star Alliance, began a tough restructuring programme which includes redundancies. The airline carried around 3.4 million passengers in 2002, around 5% more than in 2001. (Puls Biznesu, p. 6; Parkiet, p. 3; Reuters) J.K.