LOT Polish Airlines

Updated: October 2026 – Dark blue tail, white crane, a large “LOT” on the nose: the Polish airline is one of those carriers whose livery has changed only cautiously over the decades. For spotters, LOT is interesting for several reasons at once: it is one of the oldest airlines still in operation, it was the first in Europe to put the Dreamliner into service, and it faces a big type change – away from Embraer, toward the Airbus A220. This page puts LOT in context, explains codes and recognition features and shows where you can get the blue-and-white jets in front of your lens.

LOT Polish Airlines at a glance

LOT Polish Airlines is Poland’s network airline. The full name is Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT – “lot” simply means “flight” in Polish. Its headquarters and hub are in Warsaw, at Warsaw Chopin Airport. From there LOT serves destinations across Europe, in the Middle East and, on long-haul routes, in North America and Asia. There are also connections from other Polish cities, above all Kraków.

The airline is owned by the Polish state, bundled through the state holding Polska Grupa Lotnicza. LOT has been a member of the Star Alliance since October 2003 and is thus a partner of Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian and many others. Unlike those three, though, LOT is not part of the Lufthansa Group but has remained independent.

The business model follows the classic hub principle: feeders from Poland, the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe supply the long-haul flights out of Warsaw, while connecting passengers from the West use the Polish capital as a gateway to the east. How the big alliances differ is explained in the guide to Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam.

Codes and callsign: LO, LOT, LOT

With LOT things are comparatively simple – with a small catch regarding the IATA code.

Identifier	Value	Where you see it
IATA code	LO	Flight number on the departure board, ticket and boarding pass
ICAO code	LOT	Flight plan, ADS-B trackers, air traffic control
Callsign	LOT	Radio traffic between cockpit and controllers
Country prefix	SP-	Registration on the tail and under the wings
Hub	WAW	Warsaw Chopin Airport

At LOT the ICAO code and callsign are identical, which makes listening in and searching easier. However, if you type “LO” into a tracker, you do not always end up at the right flight, because there the connections usually run under the three-letter ICAO code. Why there are two code systems at all is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes, and you can find the difference between flight number and callsign in the post Callsign vs. flight number.

The registration helps, too: Polish aircraft carry the prefix SP-, and at LOT an L almost always follows. Other Polish operators, such as the leisure airline Enter Air, also fly with SP- but use different letter sequences. You can read more about prefixes worldwide in the post on aircraft country codes.

A short history: from the crane in 1929 to the Dreamliner

LOT was created at the end of 1928, when the Polish state merged the country’s previously private airlines into a single state-owned airline. It started flight operations on January 1, 1929 – making LOT one of the oldest airlines in the world still flying under its original name.

The key milestones at a glance:

• 1930s: Expansion of the network with aircraft from Junkers, Fokker and later Douglas and Lockheed. In 1934 the airline moved to the then new Warsaw-Okęcie airport, today’s hub.
• 1939: With World War II, flight operations ended; parts of the fleet were taken abroad to safety.
• 1945: Restart as a state-owned company, in the following decades mainly with Soviet-built aircraft.
• 1972: With the Ilyushin Il-62, LOT began transatlantic service, first to Canada and shortly afterward to New York as well.
• 1989: After the political upheaval, LOT bought its first Boeing 767s – the starting signal for a Western fleet, followed shortly after by ATR turboprops and Boeing 737s.
• 2003: Joined the Star Alliance.
• 2012: In November, LOT became the first European airline to take delivery of a Boeing 787.
• 2025: At the Paris Air Show, LOT ordered 40 Airbus A220s – the first Airbus order in the company’s history.

The crane, by the way, is almost as old as the airline itself: the graphic artist Tadeusz Gronowski designed the logo in 1929 as part of a competition, and in the early 1930s it first appeared on the tails. To this day it adorns the tail – in barely changed form.

Livery and recognition features

The basic features of today’s LOT livery go back to a design from the late 1970s: white fuselage, large blue “LOT” titles at the front, dark blue tail with the crane. Around 2011/2012 the design was refreshed and rolled out across the fleet around the introduction of the Dreamliner. Since then the livery looks even more pared down.

Here is how to go about identifying one:

Speaking of special liveries: LOT repeatedly sends aircraft out in special colors. These have included jets in Star Alliance livery, motifs around the anniversary of Polish independence, regional advertising liveries and, for the airline’s 90th birthday in 2018, an Embraer in a retro look. Such one-offs are rare and worth planning for – how to find them is covered in the guide to special liveries.

The fleet in 2026

In mid-2026 LOT operates around 95 aircraft from three families. The numbers fluctuate with additions and departures as well as leased aircraft; the following overview therefore mainly shows what the types are used for.

Type	Use	Status for spotters
Boeing 787-8	Long-haul	Dreamliner from the early days, two more aircraft agreed
Boeing 787-9	Long-haul with high demand	longer variant, with LOT since 2018
Boeing 737 MAX 8	European routes, medium-haul	Backbone of the narrowbody fleet
Boeing 737-800	European routes	small number alongside the MAX
Embraer E170 / E175	shorter European routes	first examples have already left the fleet
Embraer E190 / E195	European routes	will be replaced by the A220 from 2027
Embraer E195-E2	European routes	small number of leased jets, since 2024
Airbus A220-100 / -300	European routes	on order, deliveries from 2027

Long-haul: only Dreamliners

On long-haul routes LOT uses exclusively the Boeing 787 – so a LOT widebody is always a Dreamliner. The 787-8 was the entry in 2012; LOT was thereby the type’s first European customer. The start was bumpy, because in early 2013 the worldwide 787 fleet had to be grounded temporarily due to battery problems – including the Polish jets. Since 2018 the stretched 787-9 has supplemented the fleet. In 2025 LOT also agreed to take two more 787-8s.

Short and medium haul: 737 MAX and Embraer

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the workhorse on the European routes with higher demand. A few 737-800s still fly alongside. You can tell the difference between the two by the winglets, engines and tail cone – a topic that the article Recognizing aircraft types covers in detail.

The Embraer fleet is unusually broad: few airlines in Europe fly so many variants of the E-Jet family at the same time – E170, E175, E190 and E195, plus a small number of leased E195-E2s since 2024. For spotters who want to document the family without gaps, LOT is a treasure trove.

The future: Airbus A220

In June 2025, LOT ordered 40 Airbus A220s at the Paris Air Show – 20 each of the A220-100 and A220-300, plus options on further examples. For LOT it is the first order from Airbus ever. Deliveries begin in 2027 and stretch over several years. The A220s will then gradually take over the duties of the older Embraer jets; LOT has already handed back the first E175s in anticipation.

Spotting tips: where to get LOT in front of your lens

In Warsaw

Only at the Warsaw Chopin hub do you see the entire LOT fleet in one day – from the small Embraer to the Dreamliner. Long-haul flights typically depart and land in specific time windows; plan your visit using the timetable or a tracker. Which runway is used depends on the wind. Why that is decisive for your position is explained in the article on the runway direction in use at an airport. You can read more about the location and runways on the page for Warsaw Chopin Airport.

In Germany

Outside Poland you meet LOT mainly at the Star Alliance hubs. LOT serves Frankfurt and Munich regularly from Warsaw. In Frankfurt the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a proven location, and in Munich the visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel). Among the many Lufthansa jets, the dark blue LOT tail stands out quickly.

Which other German airports are currently in LOT’s network changes with the timetable periods – check the current timetable before you visit. On the Germany routes you mostly see Embraer jets and Boeing 737 MAX 8s; Dreamliners in LOT colors are the big exception here.

Light and perspective

The dark blue of the tail quickly loses detail in backlight and then looks almost black. LOT photos work best in side light, when the crane stands out cleanly from the blue. How to calculate the sun position for your spot in advance is shown in the guide to the sun position at your photo spot. For the small Embraer jets, a somewhat longer focal length is worthwhile so the aircraft doesn’t look lost in the frame.

If you are just starting out, the guide Plane spotting for beginners provides the basics on equipment, spots and etiquette.

Common mix-ups

• Swapping LO and LOT – LO is the IATA code in the flight number, LOT is the ICAO code and the callsign. On trackers, LOT gets you to the target more reliably.
• Taking every SP- registration for LOT – SP- stands for Poland. Enter Air and other Polish operators also use this prefix.
• Counting LOT as part of the Lufthansa Group – LOT is a Star Alliance partner of Lufthansa but does not belong to the group.
• Equating the E190 and E195 – both are part of the same family, but the E195 is much longer. Counting the windows behind the wing helps.
• Confusing the E195 and E195-E2 – the E2 has larger engines and redesigned wings without the classic winglets of the first generation.
• Overlooking charter and wet-lease flights – an LO flight number only says who sells the flight, not necessarily who flies it. Background in the post Wet lease explained.

Conclusion

LOT Polish Airlines is a rewarding airline for spotters: the livery with the crane is distinctive and rich in tradition, the Embraer fleet offers a rare variety of types, and on long-haul routes the Dreamliner, a modern widebody that LOT was the first airline in Europe to operate, is the type flying. With the switch to the A220 from 2027, a new chapter begins – and the Embraer era is slowly coming to an end.