Centralwings

If you stood at British, Irish or Polish airports in the mid-2000s, you knew the sight: a Boeing 737 of the Classic generation with a Polish registration and the titles “Centralwings.” The airline existed for only a good four years, yet it stands for an exciting phase of European aviation – the low-cost boom after Poland’s EU accession. This page sums up what Centralwings was, what it flew and why it disappeared again.

Centralwings at a glance

Centralwings was a Polish low-cost airline based in Warsaw that belonged entirely to the state airline LOT Polish Airlines. Formally the shares were held by the LOT company Nowy Przewoźnik, which translates roughly as “new carrier.” Centralwings was founded in December 2004, and the first flight took off in February 2005.

The timing was no coincidence. Poland had joined the EU in May 2004, the air transport market opened up, and hundreds of thousands of people were drawn to the UK and Ireland to work. Low-cost carriers like Ryanair, easyJet and the young Wizz Air pounced on these connections. LOT did not want to give up the market without a fight and set its own, cheaper brand against them with Centralwings.

You know this pattern from other countries: Germanwings also emerged in the same years as a cheap brand alongside a big network airline. Why big airlines found such subsidiary brands is explained in the article on multi-brand strategies.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code C0: appeared in the flight number, that is on departure boards and tickets. The second character is the digit zero.
• ICAO code CLW: was used in the air traffic control flight plan.
• Callsign CENTRALWINGS: this is how the crews called in on the radio.

The IATA code still causes confusion today. Some sources write “CO” with the letter O – but at the time that code belonged to Continental Airlines. If you evaluate old schedules, boarding passes or logbooks, pay close attention to the zero. Codes with digits were already common in the 2000s because the two-letter combinations were running short.

History: four years in fast forward

The start and the network

In the first phase Centralwings connected Polish cities with destinations in Western Europe. Reference works list Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Katowice, Wroclaw, Poznan, Łódź and Szczecin as Polish departure airports. Destinations included cities such as Rome, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Bologna, Lille and Paris-Beauvais, plus beach destinations on the Mediterranean and on islands. According to English-language accounts, for long stretches around 60 percent of capacity went to connections to the UK and Ireland.

That was exactly the territory where Ryanair and Wizz Air were also growing. For Centralwings this meant a hard price war against airlines working with newer aircraft, lower costs and much bigger networks.

A short detour to Germany

In 2006 Centralwings also offered flights to Cologne, Hannover and Nuremberg. Demand remained low, however, and the routes quickly disappeared from the schedule again. Anyone standing at the observation decks in Cologne/Bonn, Hannover or Nuremberg back then could therefore only catch a Centralwings 737 for a short time. Photos from this phase are correspondingly rare.

Losses and the switch to charter

Economically the numbers did not add up. Polish sources put the operating result for 2006 and 2007 at clearly double-digit millions of złoty in losses each. In 2008 Centralwings cut its scheduled network radically: in fall 2008 the nearly 30 remaining scheduled routes ended, and from then on the airline flew only charter and so-called charter-mix flights, in which part of the seats are sold freely. Until May 2009 Centralwings also operated charter flights on behalf of LOT. The difference between the two forms of operation is explained in the article Charter flights vs. scheduled flights.

The end in 2009

On March 26, 2009, LOT decided to dissolve Centralwings. According to Polish sources, the last flight took place on May 31, 2009, and insolvency proceedings with liquidation of assets followed in June 2009. LOT cited permanently lacking profitability as the reason. Centralwings thus joins a long list of European airlines that disappeared again after a short time – more on that in the overview of major airline failures in Europe.

The fleet: Boeing 737 Classic

Centralwings relied on the Boeing 737 of the Classic generation, that is the -300, -400 and -500 series between the original 737 and the Next Generation. The Boeing 737s came from the fleet of parent LOT. For September 2008, English-language reference works give the following picture:

Type	Number (Sept. 2008)	Origin	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-300	3	LOT fleet	Shorter Classic version
Boeing 737-400	8	LOT fleet	Longest fuselage of the Classic family
McDonnell Douglas MD-80	1	leased	Rear-mounted engines, T-tail – an exotic in the fleet picture

The numbers vary depending on the source and the time: the German-language account gives about nine Boeing 737s, three of them 737-300s and six 737-400s. That is normal for a small subsidiary that shared aircraft with its parent. What is clear: the Classic 737s were older than the brand-new 737-800s, A319s and A320s with which Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air were growing at the time.

737-300 or 737-400? How to tell them apart

On old photos the question often comes up which Classic version you have in front of you. Both share engines with the typically flattened underside of the nacelle; the differences lie in the length.

You will find more details on all generations – from the Original through the Classic to the MAX – in the guide Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart. The manufacturer of both types is Boeing.

How to recognize Centralwings in photos

Centralwings flew with the airline’s name on the fuselage; the aircraft came from the LOT fleet. If you sift through archive photos today, you should therefore combine several features:

• “Centralwings” titles on the fuselage – the surest feature.
• Polish registration with SP- at the tail. Many aircraft were in service with LOT before and after.
• Boeing 737 Classic as the type; an MD-80 in the Centralwings setting is the rare exception.
• Place and date: photos from British, Irish or Polish airports from the years 2005 to 2009 fit the picture.

Where Centralwings flew

The two bases were Warsaw Chopin Airport and Krakow Balice Airport. Add to that departures from Polish regional airports such as Gdansk, Katowice and Wroclaw. In the west Centralwings landed in the UK and Ireland among other places, as well as in Rome, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Paris-Beauvais.

Centralwings and Polish aviation today

With the end of Centralwings, LOT gave up its own low-cost brand. The LOT family at the time also included the regional subsidiary EuroLOT, which existed until 2015. The Polish holiday and charter market is shaped today mainly by Enter Air, also with Boeing 737s. And with Buzz, a Polish company of the Ryanair Group flies – a hint as to who won the low-cost market in the end.

To understand the business model, it is worth looking at the opponents: Ryanair and Wizz Air relied on uniform, young fleets and very low costs per seat, while Centralwings had older aircraft and was closely tied to the structures of a network airline. How low-cost carriers make their money is explained in the article How low-cost carriers work.

Common mix-ups

• Reading C0 as “CO” – the IATA code contains the digit zero; CO was Continental Airlines’ code at the time.
• Taking Centralwings for a charter airline from the start – until fall 2008 it was a low-cost scheduled airline, only afterward did it fly charter only.
• Taking every SP 737 Classic for Centralwings – LOT itself also flew 737 Classics, the titles decide.
• Confusing Centralwings with Buzz – Buzz belongs to the Ryanair Group and is a completely different company.
• Expecting a single end date – dissolution decision in March, last flight in May 2009.

Conclusion

Centralwings was LOT’s short low-cost episode: launched in 2005 in the spirit of optimism after Poland’s EU accession, worn down in competition with Ryanair and Wizz Air, charter only from fall 2008 and dissolved in spring 2009. For spotters the airline remains an appealing archive topic – with Boeing 737s of the Classic generation, Polish registrations and an IATA code that is often noted wrongly because of the zero.