May 6, 2024.   Dlaczego nie Polska?

I was flipping through the Polish translation of my book (the latest edition has been oddly popular in that country for some reason), marveling at the Polish language’s impenetrable salad of consonants. And something struck me: no U.S. carrier flies to Poland.

Nor has any American carrier flown to Poland since Delta in the 1990s, after Delta took over Pan Am’s European network — and I’m pretty sure they did it only from Frankfurt or Berlin, not as a direct flight from the States. American Airlines did announce a Chicago-Warsaw route just before COVID hit, then scrapped it and never re-announced it.

Why? This isn’t a trick question. I don’t know the answer. And it seems odd. Not only are there millions of Polish-Americans, but the largest community of Polish-Americans lives in and around Chicago, a major hub for both American Airlines and United. Polish carrier LOT, meanwhile (one of the oldest airlines in the world, established in 1928), has flown to both O’Hare and JFK for decades. Is it a political thing? Is there simply not enough premium fare traffic to warrant such a route?

A LOT Boeing 787 at New York’s JFK Airport.

The Israeli carrier El Al sometimes operates charters from JFK to the Polish city of Katowice. My guess is that these are remembrance tours of some kind, as the Auschwitz-Birkenau site is nearby to there.

While were at it, what other “missing routes” can you think of? Can you name another city-pair that seemingly should have airline service, but for whatever reasons does not?