The twice-daily weekday service, and daily weekend service, from London City was revealed last June.

LOT will operate the route with four brand-new Embraer 190 jet aircraft.

The route builds on LOT’s recently launched London City-Warsaw service, and its operations at the Docklands airport will grow with the addition of a Vilnius route from May 1.

Flights to the Hungarian capital depart London City at 9.15am (excluding Sundays) arriving 12.45pm, and 7.30pm (excluding Saturdays) arriving 11pm.

Adrian Kubicki, LOT Polish Airlines director of corporate communications, said the route was underpinned by annual London-Budapest passenger traffic of about 1.4 million.

Peter Downes, London City aviation director, added the route grew the airport’s network with another “major European city” he is confident will be popular with leisure and business travellers.

“This is the latest staging post in LOT’s growth at London City airport, coming just five weeks after the highly successful launch of flights to Warsaw and ahead of a new Vilnius connection in May,” he said.