OLT Moves Focus from Germany to Poland

Posted 27/09/2011

A major restructuring of German carrier OLT has seen it move its focus into the Polish market as new owners have developed a revised business model.  After losing its contracts to fly shuttle services for Airbus on routes within Europe, the airline will shutdown the majority of its scheduled operations In Germany, although some domestic flights will still being offered using general aviation aircraft, including island shuttle links between Bokrum, Emden and Helgoland.

The company is now under common ownership with regional carrier Jetair and a combined venture, to be dubbed OLT Jetair, will offer flights from Gdansk to Hamburg (five times weekly) and Prague (twice weekly) from November 15, using an ATR 42-300.  The venture will also offer domestic links between Rzeszow and Warsaw, to be flown using an 18-seat BAe Jetstream 32, twice daily services from Gdansk and Wroclaw to Warsaw and weekday-only flights from Gdansk and Wroclaw to Berlin.  Looking forward, OLT Jetair is already formulating new routes for 2012 and hopes to offer a link from Gdansk to Brussels, via Bremen and to Rzeszow, with a stopover in Katowice.

An estimated 1.5 million O&D passengers travelled between Poland and destinations across Europe, with the largest markets being United Kingdom (27.8 per cent), Germany (11.5 per cent), Italy (8.4 per cent), Norway (5.9 per cent) and Spain (5.9 per cent).  The Polish domestic market is still in its infancy although 65,000 O&D passengers are estimated to have flown internally in the last 12 months, the majority flying to the capital Warsaw from Gdansk and Wroclaw. 

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