During the s, LOT expanded its domestic and international routes, leading to a network spanning over 10, km by Post-war, LOT was reestablished in as a state enterprise , primarily operating Soviet-built aircraft due to Poland becoming a Soviet satellite state in Resuming both domestic and international flights, LOT operated a fleet consisting of Ilyushin Il , Ilyushin Il , Tupolev Tu , and Antonov An , among others, serving routes across Europe, the Middle East, and eventually launching transatlantic flights to North America in the early s.
In the post era, following the fall of communism in Poland , LOT transitioned to Western aircraft, including the acquisition of Boeing for long-haul routes. The airline joined the Star Alliance in Most of the destinations originate from its hub at Warsaw Chopin Airport.
In , LOT began flying to Wilno. In next years there followed services to Berlin , Athens , Helsinki , Budapest , including some waypoints. Several Polish aircraft designs were tested, but only the single-engined PWS airliner was acquired in any number.
This constituted a move from the airline's previous base at Pole Mokotowskie , as this airport had become impossible to operate safely due it gradually becoming absorbed into Warsaw's outlying urban and residential areas. After the Soviet occupation of Poland, from August until December the Polish Air Force maintained basic transport in the country; from March there were regular routes maintained by Civil Aviation Department of the Air Force.
Nine Ilyushin Il turboprop airliners were introduced in June , leading to the establishment of routes to Africa and the Middle East, and in LOT expanded its routes to serve Cairo. The Tus were operated on European routes. The Ilyushin Il long-range jet airliner inaugurate the first transatlantic routes in the history of Polish air transport to Toronto in as a charter flight and a regular flight to New York City in In the autumn of , commercial air traffic in Poland neared collapse in the wake of the communist government's crackdown on dissenters in the country after the rise of the banned 'trade union' dissident Solidarity movement , and some Western airlines suspended their flights to Warsaw.
