Editing LOT Polish Airlines (section)

===LOT during Polish People's Republic===
[[File:LOT Ilyushin Il-18 Bidini.jpg|thumb|A LOT [[Ilyushin Il-18]] landing at [[Rome Ciampino Airport]] in 1977]]

After the Soviet occupation of Poland, from August 1944 until December 1945 the [[Polish Air Force]] maintained basic transport in the country; from March 1945 there were regular routes maintained by Civil Aviation Department of the Air Force.<ref name=sam2/> On 10 March 1945 the Polish government recreated the LOT airline, as a [[state-owned enterprise]] (Przedsiębiorstwo Państwowe Polskie Linie Lotnicze 'LOT'), which would mainly fly Soviet-built aircraft, owing to the tensions of the [[Cold War]] and Poland being a member of the [[Warsaw Pact]].<ref name=sam2/> In 1946, seven years after service was first suspended, the airline restarted its operations after receiving ten Soviet-built ex-Air Force [[Lisunov Li-2]]Ts, then further passenger Li-2Ps and nine [[Douglas C-47]]s.<ref name=sam2/> Both domestic and international services restarted that year, first to Berlin, Paris, [[Stockholm]] and [[Prague]].<ref name="sam2">Jońca, Adam (1985). ''Samoloty linii lotniczych 1945–1956'', 2nd cover {{in lang|pl}}</ref> In 1947 there were added routes to Bucharest, Budapest, Belgrad and Copenhagen.<ref name=sam2/> 
Five modern, although troublesome [[SNCASE SE.161 Languedoc|SE.161 Languedoc]] joined the fleet for a short period in 1947–1948, followed by five [[Ilyushin Il-12]]B in 1949; 13–20 [[Ilyushin Il-14]]s then followed in 1955–1957.<ref name="sam2"/> After the end of [[Stalinism]] in Poland, few Western aircraft would be acquired; five [[Convair 240]]s in 1957 and three [[Vickers Viscount]]s in 1962 proved to be the last until the 1990s.<ref name="sam3"/> After that, the composition of the airline's fleet shifted exclusively to [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-produced aircraft.<ref name="sam3">Adam Jońca, ''Samoloty linii lotniczych 1957–1981'', WKiŁ, Warsaw 1986, {{ISBN|83-206-0530-X}} {{in lang|pl}}</ref> Only in 1955 LOT inaugurated services to [[Moscow]], being the centre of the Marxist–Leninist world, and to [[Vienna]].<ref name=sam2/> Services to [[London]] and [[Zürich]] were not re-established until 1958, and to Rome until 1960.<ref name=sam3/>

[[File:Tupolev Tu-134 SP-LGA LOT FRA 28.07.74 edited-2.jpg|thumb|A LOT [[Tupolev Tu-134]] on approach to [[Frankfurt Airport|Frankfurt]] in 1974]]

Nine [[Ilyushin Il-18]] turboprop airliners were introduced in June 1961, leading to the establishment of routes to Africa and the Middle East, and in 1963 LOT expanded its routes to serve [[Cairo]].<ref name=sam3/> In the 1970s there were added lines to [[Baghdad]], [[Beirut]], [[Benghazi]], [[Damascus]] and [[Tunis]]. The [[Antonov An-24]] was delivered from April 1966 (20 used, on domestic routes), followed by the first jet airliners [[Tupolev Tu-134]] in November 1968 (which coincided with the opening of a new international terminal at Warsaw's Okęcie Airport). The Tu-134s were operated on European routes. The [[Ilyushin Il-62]] long-range [[jet airliner]] inaugurate the first transatlantic routes in the history of Polish air transport to [[Toronto]] in 1972 as a charter flight and a regular flight to [[New York City]] in 1973.<ref name=sam3/> LOT began service on its first Far East destination – [[Bangkok]] via [[Dubai]] and [[Bombay]] in 1977.<ref name=sam3/>

[[File:Ilyushin Il-62M, LOT - Polish Airlines - Polskie Linie Lotnicze AN1062039.jpg|thumb|left|A LOT [[Ilyushin Il-62]] at [[Heathrow Airport]] in 1984]]

In 1977<ref name="sam3"/> the airline's current [[livery]] (despite occasional changes, notably in corporate typography) designed by Roman Duszek and Andrzej Zbrożek, with the large 'LOT' inscription in blue on the front [[fuselage]], and a blue tailplane was introduced, the 1929-designed [[Tadeusz Gronowski]] logo,<ref>[http://www.lot.com/Portal/EN/aspx/Content__History_List.aspx History], ''LOT.com''. Link accessed 28 May 2008. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823073206/http://www.lot.com/Portal/EN/aspx/Content__History_List.aspx |date=23 August 2009 }}</ref> however, despite many changes in livery, was kept through the years, and to this day remains the same.{{clarify|reason=Unclear sentence.|date=November 2024}}<ref>[http://www.lot.com/Portal/EN/aspx/Content__LOT_Artwork_History.aspx "History of LOT's logo"], ''LOT.com''. Link accessed 28 May 2008. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204045819/http://www.lot.com/Portal/EN/aspx/Content__LOT_Artwork_History.aspx |date=4 December 2008 }}</ref>

In the autumn of 1981, 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 (Polish trade union)|Solidarity movement]], and some Western airlines suspended their flights to Warsaw. With 13 December [[Martial law in Poland|declaration of Martial Law that same year]], all LOT connections were suspended. Charter flights to New York and Chicago resumed only in 1984, and eventually, regular flight connections were restored on 28 April 1985. [[Tupolev Tu-154]] mid-range airliners were acquired, after the withdrawal of Il-18 and Tu-134 aircraft from LOT's fleet in the 1980s, and were deployed successively on most European and Middle East routes. In 1986 transatlantic charter flights also reached [[Detroit]] and [[Los Angeles]].