Welcome to this vintage flight report describing my flight from Warsaw to Krakow in January 2011 with LOT Polish Airlines, operated in that time by a very classic Boeing 737-500.
BACKGROUND
Waiting for my upcoming flights, I decided to check a little bit my vast archives where, as I expected, I found many photo-relations that have never been published. They gained more value with time as nothing changes as fast nowadays as the aviation. So you will have a possibility to see some classic aircraft with classic interiors and liveries and I will have a possibility to refresh my memories.
BOEING 737-500 IN LOT
LOT used to have 12 737-500s in its fleet for more than…. 20 years! The first one arrived in 1992 while the last one was withdrawn in 2013. They operated mainly to European/Middle East destinations such as LHR, CDG, SVO, ATH, MAD, BCN, TLV, LCA but sometimes also on shorter routes like WAW-VIE and even, as in case of my flight, on domestic flights. I must say I really liked this type of classic 737 as its fuselage was significantly wider than the one of E-JETs family but also very short as for the 737 - a thing that provided space and also some cosiness as the aircarft was equipped with only 108 seats in LOT configuration.
THE FLIGHT
This particular flight was supposed to take me to Krakow on a one-day trip on a gray and cold winter day. I used to make myself this kind of trips buying cheap domestic return tickets that those days costed 30 EUR - a price equal to one way train ticket on a fast Inter City train. Unfortunately those days are now gone as the prices of domestic flights, especially to Krakow, are far more expensive and having a dog doesn't allow me anymore to spend whole days away from home.
My flight was initially supposed to be operated by E-70 that would be a resonable solution as LF appeared to be very low with not more than 30 passengers. I noticed the aircraft change a day or two before the flight. Flights on this route were then operated mostly by ATR-72 of Eurolot or E-70/75. The 737-500 that was supposed to take me that day to Krakow was a 17 years old SP-LKF, delivered to LOT in 1994 and withdrawn two years after this flight, in the fisrt months of 2013 as one of the last two 737-500s in LOT fleet.
This interior was a very classic one even in 2011, now it looks really ancient but these seats were really comfortable.
The weather was quite terrible that day - it was snowing and raining at the same time. Hard to see anything because of the rain drops.
Look who's there still flying and looking good - 767-300 SP-LPC that in November the same year will perform a spectacular belly landing in WAW due to gear failure.
But let's come back to January 2011 when SP-LPC is still operating flights to Canada and USA and its landing gear is still working well…
Take off in heavy rain and snow
A couple of minutes in very dense and heavy clouds
And finally some sunshine on this dark and rainy winter
Some air traffic
Service in progress. There was no big difference between LOT service on domestic flights between now and then - a chocolate bar + water. Unfortunately I have no picture. The classic 737 interior looks so nice.
After approximately 15 minutes in the air we start our descent to Cracow where the weather seems to be more adequate for winter
Some more winter landscapes
Short finals over the city
and back to the ground
There were no jet bridges that day in KRK and every deboarding was done by bus
A classic jet in very classic livery designed in the 70-ties!
Thanks for reading. Some more vintage reports are about to come.
See more
Verdict
LOT Polish
7.3/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering7.0
Warsaw - WAW
8.5/10
Efficiency8.5
Access8.5
Services8.5
Cleanliness8.5
Kraków - KRK
5.8/10
Efficiency5.5
Access5.5
Services5.5
Cleanliness6.5
Conclusion
It was nice to fly one of my favourite aircraft on such a short route. Too bad 737-500 became so rare nowadays. It used to be a very comfortable aircraft in configuration of 108 good old seats.
7 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Hi Loukas! Oh wow, when I saw 737-500 I knew it couldn't be recent, haha. It's crazy what a difference 8 years makes...Y seats were generally so much thicker and more comfortable with more legroom back then...now ironing boards and 30" pitch or less have become the norm on narrowbodies ?
Thanks for sharing this retro-report! Have a good one!
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7 Comments
Thanks for sharing this retro-report! Have a good one!
Vintage? Ouch. What am I, then? Prehistoric?! XD
But I must admit that a cabin like that is hard to find these days.
That was one creative logo. Other airlines have birds. LOT used to have a mosquito! XD
No, seriously, what was that supposed to be?
Beautiful aerials!
Thanks for this look at the good old times!
Sorry! LOL
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