APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070025-1
responsible for the regulation and control of this mode of transport. Directly subordinate to the Minister were: LOT, the national air carrier; Department of Civil Aviation, the policymaking and regulatory agency; and Air Traffic and Airports Administration, the technical body providing and administering airfields, navigational aids, and air traffic control.
While the chain of command appears intact on paper, it, in fact, had been seriously impinged upon by a number of different ministries which had gained some degree of control over various aspects of civil aviation. Each of these ministries had different priorities and missions which further tended to erode the policymaking power of LOT officials and added to the stagnation that plagued LOT operations throughout the 1960's.
This situation began to change quickly in 1971 with the advent of the Gierek administration, which planned systematically to modernize air transport. An interagency commission was formed to study and recommend solutions for the centralization of civil aviation under a single authority. Full Politburo approval remains the only barriers to this necessary administrative unification. The Gierek administration also announced a Five Year Plan to modernize airports, renovate equipment, expand air routes, and purchase new equipment for air traffic control. LOT planners have managed to establish service to 28 airports in Europe and feature stops in Nicosia, Cairo, and Beirut. Current LOT regional route planning points to stabilizing European operations with some thought of extending services to Munich, Oslo, Manchester, and Barcelona. Present emphasis by LOT planners is to expand international routes to North and South America and Africa. LOT has charter flights to New York and planned scheduled service between Warsaw and New York in the spring of 1973. The routes to North Africa are soon to be extended to Dakar and, in the longer term, services are to be extended to South America. Plans are also in hand for developing routes to East Asia and the Middle East. Ambitious route exploration by LOT planners can be noted in the announcement that a LOT Il-62 was to have made two chartered flights to Australia late in 1972. Another indicator of LOT expansion is noted by the fact that in 1971, for the first time, LOT transported over one million passengers. These statistics appear impressive until compared with those of neighboring Czechoslovakia. In 1969 the Czechoslovak national carrier, CSA, transported well over one million passengers, considerably more than LOT. The Czechs received their first jet transports, the Tu-104, from the Soviet Union in 1957, but LOT did not receive their Tu-134's until late in 1968.
In an effort to overcome the stagnation of their air service, LOT officials have moved vigorously to update airports, aircraft, and service. International routes, according to Polish aviation economists, have been profitable, but internal air routes have yielded quite different results. Domestic services are operated primarily from the Warsaw/Okecie airport to Gdansk, Krakow, Katowice, Poznan, Wroclaw, Koszalin, Rzezow, and Bydgoszcz.
Polish civil aviation authorities continue to be frustrated by the inefficiency of the domestic flight system. Air service has been hampered by the fact that airports in Poland lack modern equipment and trained personnel. Most of LOT's domestic schedule is confined to daytime (visual flight regulations or VFR) flights. This inflexibility has been the basic cause for inconvenient, unreliable scheduling, often resulting in changes or cancellation of flights, and consequent inefficient utilization of aircraft. Polish authorities, moving to correct this situation, have initiated a strong public relations program designed to attract government officials, merchants, and tourists.
LOT officials hope to increase their hold on the traveling public by modernizing their international and domestic air fleets. The 48 major civil transport aircraft (20,000 pounds or greater gross weight) are all of Soviet manufacture and consist of three CLASSIC (Il-62), eight COOT (Il-18), six CRUSTY (Tu-134), 14 COKE (An-24), and 17 CRATE (Il-14) aircraft. Acquisiton of the two large Il-62 transports in 1972 was part of a plan to upgrade service of the international routes and to release a number of the older Il-18 aircraft for domestic flights. LOT officials believe that the Il-18 will be more efficient on heavily traveled routes than the obsolete piston-engine Il-14 aircraft, which have been used since 1953 and are gradually being withdrawn from service. The COKE aircraft will continue to be alternated between domestic routes and some limited international service. If traffic increases sufficiently, LOT will probably buy the Il-86, which is a wide-bodied medium-range transport now being developed in the Soviet Union. Two LOT aircraft are shown in Figure 10.
It is estimated that LOT employs over 3,500 personnel, among whom are about 200 transport pilots, 200 to 300 other technical flight personnel, over 500 administrative personnel, and over 1,000 maintenance technicians.
The only facilities for basic flight training other than those available in the air force are offered by the Aeroclub of the Polish People's Republic through its
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070025-1
