Aerolot
The 1925 timetable used the name "Polska Linja Lotnicza" - Polish Airline, which later became part of the name of LOT Polish Airlines
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| Founded | June 3, 1922 Danzig, Free City of Danzig |
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| Commenced operations | September 5, 1922 |
| Ceased operations | December 28, 1928 |
| Hubs | |
| Focus cities | |
| Fleet size | 17 |
Aerolot (until 1925 Aerolloyd) was a Polish airline. Created in 1922, it was the first regular airline in Poland. Throughout its existence, the airline attained a 100 percent safety record. Nationalised in 1928, it became the core of LOT Polish Airlines, the flag carrier of Poland.
The company was formed in 1922 by Ignacy Wygard, Bronisław Dunin-Żuchowski and Kazimierz Unruch, three co-owners of Fanto, the largest oil producing company of former Austria-Hungary. Their intention was to allow oil barons like themselves to travel quickly between the Borysław and Drohobycz oilfields, Warsaw where their company had its headquarters, and the port of Danzig, through which they exported most of their products. The newly created "Polish Air Line Aerolloyd" company was formed with financial backing of German Norddeutscher Lloyd company, who tried to open its own airline in Danzig, since 1923 running under the name of Deutscher Aero Lloyd. Aero Lloyd's Danzig subsidiary, the Lloyd Ostflug (Lloyd Eastern Airlines) headed by Erhard Milch, started operations shortly after World War I but had to limit its activities due to French pressure. Consequently, its aircraft were leased to the new Polish company. They received Polish civilian registrations, but also affectionate male names, the initial of the nickname reflected the last letter in the registration. Thus P-PALB became 'Bronek', P-PALC became 'Cezar', and so on.
Aerolloyd was not the first airline in Poland, but it was the first to offer regular flights and survive. The company enjoyed subsidies from the government of Poland who allowed its aircraft to use military airfields in Poland free of charge for lack of purpose-built civilian airports. The government also repaid 130 Polish marks for every kilometre and allowed the company access to meteorological data from military weather stations.
Based in the Free City of Danzig, the airline initially operated a Danzig-Warsaw-Lvov line, in 1924 a Warsaw-Kraków link was added to the timetable. In 1925 it was extended to Vienna (since 1926 by way of Brno), and a new line linking Kraków with Lvov was added.
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