LOT Polish Airlines has started the summer in style by launching a new route from its main hub at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) to Almaty (ALA) in Kazakhstan. Robert Ludera, LOT’s Chief Commercial Officer, said at the time of the launch that the new route highlights “the growing importance of the Central Asian region in [LOT’s] offering.” However, it is also a significant milestone for another reason.

Indeed, according to current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, this route, specifically the return leg from Almaty back to Warsaw, will host LOT Polish Airlines’ longest-ever flights with Boeing 737 family aircraft.

All The Way To Almaty

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LOT Polish Airlines operated its inaugural flight from Warsaw to Almaty on May 31. The eastbound leg, numbered as LO197, has a typical block time of six hours and 20 minutes, and operates overnight. The daytime westbound return leg, however, is a veritable narrowbody marathon, with schedules between now and March 2027 highlighting a maximum block time of some seven hours and 40 minutes.

The 737 MAX 8 is LOT’s aircraft of choice for these flights, which will operate four times a week in the summer and three times a week in the winter. As seen in the map above, Almaty isn’t necessarily LOT’s most distant destination, but its inability to use Russian airspace means that it has to fly the long way round, adding time to the trip. LOT CCO Robert Ludera commented on the route.

“This part of the world is playing an increasingly important economic and business role, and the new route is a response to the growing demand for direct connections between Europe and Kazakhstan.”

LOT’s Other Longest Hops With The Boeing 737 MAX 8

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As it happens, when looking at LOT’s ten longest routes with the MAX 8 by block time between now and March of 2027, all three top spots are from Central Asian cities back to Warsaw. Elsewhere in Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan (NQZ) ranks second, with a maximum of seven hours and 20 minutes, while Tashkent (TAS) in Uzbekistan back to Warsaw takes up to six hours and 55 minutes.

A pair of Middle Eastern routes round out the top five. LOT’s new corridor from the UAE’s Dubai International Airport (DXB) back to Warsaw can be up to six hours and 45 minutes long, putting it a quarter of an hour ahead of the 6.5-hour route from Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh International Airport (RUH), which started in 2024. Meanwhile, it takes six hours and five minutes to fly from Warsaw to Tenerife (TFS).

The remaining four entries in the top 10 show considerable geographical diversity, highlighting Poland’s convenient location and the range of the 737 MAX. Marrakech to Warsaw takes up to four hours and 50 minutes, compared to four hours and 40 minutes from Baku to Warsaw, four hours and 35 minutes from Warsaw to Keflavík, and four hours and 30 minutes from Warsaw to Lisbon.

What’s It Like On Board?

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Despite their use on routes with block times of nearly eight hours, short-haul journeys within Europe are the bread and butter of LOT’s MAX 8 fleet. As such, it configures them in a flexible two-class configuration, whereby a changeable number of business class passengers can be accommodated by blocking out the middle seats in a given number of rows at the front.

According to aeroLOPA, depending on the specific aircraft involved, LOT’s MAX 8s have either 186 or 189 seats on board. Passengers can expect 17 inches of width, three inches of recline, and 30 inches of pitch in these seats. Compared to, for example, domestic first class in North America, this certainly leaves a little to be desired for premium passengers on longer routes.