Polish national air carrier LOT will extend its summer schedule of flights from Warsaw by five new destinations, Rafal Milczarski, the airline’s CEO has announced. Earlier, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it had cancelled its flights to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Mr Milczarski told journalists in Chicago on Saturday that in the coming summer season LOT would launch direct flights from Warsaw to Mumbai, Cairo, Sarajevo, Baku and Pristina.

“In order to make up for the lost connections and in order to make our planes fully booked, we have been trying to replace them with new destinations,” Mr Milczarski said, addressing a press conference marking the 50th anniversary of the LOT Warsaw-Chicago-Warsaw route.

“Direct flights to Mumbai will be launched on May 31,” he announced, adding that the new year-round connection will be operated by Dreamliner planes twice a week in the summer season.

Flights to Cairo, to be launched also on May 31 as a year-round connection and to be operated by Embraer 190 planes, will take off five times a week in the summer season.

On May 30, LOT will launch its first connection to Bosnia and Herzegovina, with five flights a week to Sarajevo. This will also be a year-round destination.

A Warsaw-Baku-Warsaw year-round connection will open on May 27. Planned are four flights a week.

“Direct flights to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, will be launched on June 6. Planned are four flights a week in the summer season, until September 22,” Mr Milczarski said.

The Polish State Treasury has a 69.3-percent stake in LOT, 30.7 percent of shares are owned by the Polish Aviation Group.