I can’t say that T’Way Air has been on my radar much up until now, but I suddenly have the urge to fly with the South Korean low cost carrier
In this post:
The basics of South Korea’s T’Way Air
Let’s start with a bit of background. T’Way Air is South Korea’s second biggest low cost carrier, after Jeju Air. T’Way Air currently operates a fleet of nearly 40 aircraft, comprised of Airbus A330s and Boeing 737s.
The airline has historically primarily operated flights within Asia, but has lately expanded its long haul services, including to Australia and Europe.
As many of you may be aware, Korean Air and Asiana are currently merging (it feels like the most drawn out merger ever), and as part of this, the combined airline is having to make quite a few concessions. Among those is that T’Way Air has been awarded the authority to operate several new routes between Seoul (ICN) and Europe. Korean Air is having to provide T’Way Air not only with the slots, but also in some cases with aircraft.
For example, T’Way Air operates flights to a variety of destinations in Europe, including Frankfurt (FRA), Paris (CDG), and Rome (FCO).
Historically, T’Way Air has offered a single class of service on its 737s, while it has offered a budget business class on its A330s. Essentially most of the A330s have a small business class cabin with 12-18 angled flat seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration.
T’Way Air will fly former Cathay Pacific 777s
T’Way Air will be expanding quite a bit in Europe next spring, as reported by AeroRoutes, as the airline is picking up some Boeing 777s. At first I assumed these were coming from Korean Air, given that Korean Air is having to provide T’Way Air not only with slots, but also with planes.
But when you look at seat maps, it tells a different story. T’Way Air is acquiring two types of 777-300ERs, both of which are former Cathay Pacific jets.
One configuration has 294 seats, including six first class seats and 53 business class seats.
The other configuration has 368 seats, including 40 business class seats.
Cathay Pacific greatly reduced its 777 fleet post-pandemic, and we’ve seen the carrier’s former jets flying all over the place, ranging from Qatar Airways, to Air New Zealand, to Turkmenistan Airlines.
T’Way Air’s business class fares are a phenomenal value, when you consider that you’re getting a reverse herringbone seat. I mean, the nearly 14-hour flight from Seoul Incheon to Rome costs under 1,000 USD in business class, which is quite the deal.
For flights scheduled to be operated by 777s with first class, I don’t see first class for sale, but rather I just see those seats blocked on the seat map. I’m curious to see how the airline handles that. Will those seats be available for purchase at an extra cost among business class passengers, with the same business class service? Or what exactly is the plan here?
T’Way Air’s expansion represents a great value for those who value a comfortable seat, but don’t necessarily care about miles, soft product, lounge access, etc.
At the same time, I can’t help but scratch my head a bit at how the airline intends to make money flying premium configured 777s while undercutting competitors on price.
Bottom line
T’Way Air is expanding significantly, as the airline is acquiring former Cathay Pacific Boeing 777s, and will fly those planes to Europe. It seems that the airline is planning on maintaining the old interiors, which will represent a massive upgrade to the carrier’s passenger experience.
Given T’Way Air’s low fares, this is a potentially great opportunity. It remains to be seen how the airline will make money with this strategy, but consumers certainly benefit.
What do you make of T’Way Air’s Boeing 777 plans?
My guess is that the few first class seats will be used exclusively for frequent flyer reward upgrades within the airline.
Are there plans for the airline to fly to the US? Seems like it would be more profitable than Europe for many reasons.
No way this lasts. Korean airlines are in fierce low cost competition with one another because there are too many of them, resulting in them opening new routes to try and gain an advantage. Eventually the competition will shake out and so will the bargain prices that are a byproduct of it.
T’way’s A330 business class hard product is essentially better than the majority of Emirates’ 777 business class! That says something!… ;-)
Interesting, if KE is providing planes and crews.
Is T'Way their next M&A target?
Ben, T'Way is already flying to those destinations in Europe and the recent article from Aero routes is about future increases.
The A330-200 the airline flies to Europe have fully flat business class seats. These are different from the A330-300 they fly within Asia and to Australia.
Tway Air is already flying 4 weekly to Frankfurt since early October
and will fly daily as of next summer.
In addition flights to Barcelona, Paris, Rom und Zagreb are already underway since summer 2024. In summer 2025 it will start service to Vancouver.
Agree with what's already been said -- this won't be profitable. But while it lasts will be a fun way to get the CX F seat for pennies on the dollar so count me in ;)
Now I'm wondering how profitable this is gonna be, given that T'way sells cheaper tickets than legacy carriers yet those 777s are configured quite premium-heavy and thus low-density.
FYI, T’way is suffering from operational issues with their A330s deployed to Europe route and many flights got cancelled or delayed significantly.
Now they try to improve operational reliability with 77Ws and Korean Air will also provide pilots, crews and engineers to enable T’way to operate these jets.
Their A330-300 operation has been a mess. One time, an A330 flight to Japan (I forgot which city was it) has been delayed for 10+ hours and some passengers even fainted during the wait. Meanwhile A330-200s seem to be okay, and those are also flown by Korean Air pilots.
Additionally, T'way recently ordered 20 A330-900s.