T'Way Air expands, from late April you will be able to fly low-cost from Rome to Seoul in Boeing 777-300ERs

By T'Way Air On The Flight Club we have already covered. The almost unknown (until a year ago) Korean low-cost airline, founded in 2005 and which until 2010 was called Hansung Airlines, has risen to global commercial aviation headlines following the go-ahead for the merger between Korean Air and Asiana (which will see the latter's brand disappear from airports and skies around the world).

T'Way was, in fact, the company chosen to recreate a semblance of competition on some of the intercontinental routes on which both Korean Air and Asiana operated, from Seoul (which as separate entities were competing with each other that, when the merger is completed, will disappear). Here, then, popped out of the hat of the 'regulators' T'Way Air. Which received routes, planes, training and personnel from Korean.

From the national airline received five Airbus A330-200s. (which used to be configured with 30 seats in Business to 188 in Economy while now flying with 18 seats in Business and 228 in Economy), with which it began long-haul operations. Then he put his own spin on it, acquiring leasing three A330-300s which operates in a very high seat density configuration: 12 in Business and as many as 335 in Economy.

To date, its long-haul network includes Sydney, Paris (CDG), Frankfurt, Barcelona, Zagreb (yes, that's right, the capital of Croatia) and Rome Fiumicino.

On the main Italian airport, T'Way Flies four times a week non-stop from Seoul with Airbus A330-200s offering 18 seats in Business (in a 2-2-2 configuration in three rows) and 228 seats in Economy (2-4-2). The same type of aircraft is used on Frankfurt (also 4 times a week), Paris (5 times a week) and Barcelona (4 times a week).

 

Evidently, to the Koreans, Business runs well, because. from next spring (alongside two more A330-300s expected to arrive in the coming weeks) No less than Boeing 777-300ERs will enter the fleet. Aircraft of a completely different tonnage than the A330-200 and -300. The exact number of 'triple sevens' has not yet been disclosed, but flights with Boeing's in-house bireactors can already be booked on the company's website.

At Fiumicino they will land three times a week (on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) Beginning April 26, 2025, when the connection to Seoul will increase from 4 times a week to daily (and on the other four days will continue to be operated with A330-200). The car that will serve Fiumicino will have 368 seats, including 40 in Business Class and 328 in Economy.

Not only will the seat capacity in premium class be doubled from that offered by the A330-200s in service today, but the Business of the 777-300ERs will be not in a 2-2-2 configuration, but in a far more exclusive and comfortable 1-2-1 configuration, thus keeping pace with the best Businesses in the world, at least in this respect.

On other European routes (e.g., Paris CDG), T'Way Air will instead use 777-300ERs with a capacity of 294 passengers, as many as 53 of whom will be in Business Class 1-2-1 and 6 right at the front in a two-row 1-1-1 configuration, which would appear to be First Class, T'Way, however, is not selling First on routes operated with these 777-300ERs, and it is possible that it expects its Business passengers to pay extra to access those six super-exclusive seats.

The more experienced among you will have guessed the 'source' of the Korean airline's 777-300ERs, which is not Korean Air but Cathay Pacific. That in recent times has 'divested' part of its large fleet of 777s, some of which are flying with Qatar Airways, Air new Zealand and Turkmenistan Airways.