LOT Polish Airlines will take two used Boeing 787-9s from Virgin Atlantic in the first half of 2027, aero.uk reported on 1 September 2026, citing DJ’s Aviation. LOT chief executive Michal Fijol confirmed the airline expected “two additional used 787-9s.” Neither carrier has named the specific airframes. The 787-9 is a twin-engine Boeing widebody with raked wingtips and chevron nacelle trailing edges; it is not a 787-8 and not an Airbus A330-900.
aero.uk places the transfer inside a Virgin Atlantic fleet cut that takes the 787-9 count from 17 to 14 as the carrier leans toward the Airbus A330-900. The same item says Virgin has previously described a longer-term mix of 14 Boeing 787-9s, 19 Airbus A330-900neos and 12 Airbus A350-1000s. DJ’s Aviation, as summarized in search copies of that report, frames the two 787-9s as part of that already disclosed reduction and says they are meant to support LOT international flying from Warsaw Chopin by mid-2027. This article does not add route numbers Virgin and LOT did not publish with the transfer.
LOT’s current long-haul fleet, as stated by aero.uk, is eight 787-8s and seven 787-9s. Two more 787-9s would take the Dreamliner total from 15 to 17 if no other movements intervene; DJ’s Aviation also refers to Thai Airways airframes already in LOT’s expansion plans and a possible 19-strong long-haul fleet after those and the Virgin units. Those extra Thai and 19-count figures are from DJ’s Aviation, not from the shorter aero.uk note, and they are attributed that way. The aero.uk item does not identify lessors or cabin products for the incoming Virgin jets.
DJ’s Aviation says LOT intends a cabin refresh before the used 787-9s enter service so the interiors line up with the rest of the Dreamliner fleet. aero.uk does not repeat that cabin-refresh sentence. This article records it as DJ’s Aviation’s description, not as a LOT press-kit specification of seat counts. No flight numbers, frequencies, or city pairs were attached to the two airframes in the 1 September accounts.
Virgin Atlantic’s shift toward the A330-900 is the strategic context both reports give for releasing 787-9s. LOT’s interest is extra used widebody capacity without a new-build wait. Fijol’s published phrase is limited to “two additional used 787-9s” in the first half of 2027. Delivery months inside that half-year, registrations, and engine variant beyond the 787-9 type name are not in those texts and are not invented here.
Any illustration with this story is an original scene of a Boeing 787-9 in LOT colours, not a copy of a particular Virgin Atlantic 787 photograph, and it is not a registration. It should not be read as proof that a former Virgin 787-9 already wears SP- titles.
Travellers looking at LOT long-haul capacity in 2027 should treat the two Virgin 787-9s as a fleet addition still awaiting named airframes. If a later filing identifies the tails or assigns them to published routes, that would be a new equipment notice, not a contradiction of the 1 September transfer report.
Sources: aero.uk, 1 September 2026; DJ’s Aviation as cited there
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