LOT Polish Airlines delays request for second tranche of state aid

LOT Polish Airlines announced (02-Oct-2014) it will delay its application for a second tranche of state aid from Poland's government "it should have requested more than a year ago", with the carrier having sufficiently improved its cash flow. LOT Polish Airlines stated: "The cash flow in the company at the end of September is good enough so, at least by the end of October, LOT will not apply for the second tranche of public aid which it should have requested more than a year ago. It was only just after August when the company started to be in the black. Currently, brought profits on the level of a few dozen million PLN." LOT Polish Airlines CEO Sebastian Mikosz said: "We consistently strive to sustained profitability. At the end of August, we recorded a positive result on the core business on cumulative basis. This means that, following years of loss, it was only within eight months when LOT begin making money on flying. September was a very good month. We succeeded in making profit at the level expected in the budget. Following an initial summary, we know that we are now a few dozen million PLN in black on cumulative basis. Therefore, with the cash flow being better than expected, we are still able to finance the challenging restructuring process ourselves, and still refrain from requesting the public aid." Mr Mikosz added: "It is also worth noting that our current financial standing is exclusively the effect of the efforts and consistent actions of the company. No market-related factors, such as jet fuel prices or exchanging rates, have helped us so far, as it was partly the case in the past years." [more - original PR]