LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin) will wet-lease a single A340-300 from Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) from February 28 through April 19, 2019, Belgian aviation website The Aviation Eye has reported.

OO-ABA (msn 835) will be deployed on LOT's 6x weekly Warsaw Chopin-New York JFK service and will cover for one of the Polish carrier's grounded B787-8s. The contract will also mark the first time Air Belgium has operated to the United States.

Currently, three out of LOT's eight B787-8s are grounded due to issues with their Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powerplants.

For its part, Air Belgium operates four A340-300s of which one is under a long-term wet-lease to British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) on the London Heathrow-Dubai International route. The other three are used to operate ad-hoc charters and wet-leases.