TRIP REPORT
Last year I flew on the T’Way Air’s brand-new service from Seoul to Zagreb, which was operated with a refuelling stop in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan on the A330-300. One should keep in mind that T’Way is a low-cost airline so you should not set your expectations too high. I managed to buy a roundtrip for just 580 euros, which is a great price. Would I fly with them on this long flight at a standard price? Probably not. Apart from the price, a big advantage on this flight is that the crew is Korean and that you can communicate with them easily, which many Koreans appreciate.
Boarding started on time, with the cabin in a 2x4x2 configuration. There is also a premium cabin in 2x2x2 configuration. The pitch is tight, and the seats barely recline. One big drawback is the lack of inflight entertainment. There are no monitors, so I suggest you download some movies before the flight or bring a good book.
Then before landing in Bishkek there is another complimentary meal service. You can choose between bulgogi mushroom porridge or chicken sausage. This is what the meals look like.
A word of warning is that the meals, although ok, are extremely small. So better to eat before the flight. I was hungry after the first meal so I purchase some pringles, beer and sweets, which cost 8 euros.
We landed in Bishkek where we had a 2-hour layover. Everyone must disembark the plane and you are given a transit card, which you give back when boarding the plane. I actually enjoyed this stop because it gives you a chance to stretch your legs and, if you want, eat something. Bishkek Airport is fairly small. It has a few shops selling souvenirs and eateries. It is also very quiet and there were not a lot of people around. After about an hour and a half roaming the airport, it was time to return onto our A330-300.
During the second leg of the flight, there is only one meal service, where you can choose between beef mushroom porridge or sausage and egg scramble. It's pretty much the same as the meals before we landed in Bishkek.
After a total of 15 hours, we arrived in Zagreb. The airport was quiet at our time of arrival, and we quickly passed passport control and collected our luggage, which with T’Way on this route includes one complimentary checked bag (either 15kg or 23kg, depending of the fare you bought). We were out of the airport quickly and caught an uber to our hotel. As of this year, T’Way will be using the A330-200 aircraft on this route and fly nonstop between Seoul and Zagreb.
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
For me the most interesting part of the trip report was seeing pictures of Bishkek airport!
ReplyDeleteAs for T'way, their product looks quite underwhelming. Long-haul, low-cost is a very difficult market so we will see how well they perform especially when faced with Korean Air which is a very good carrier.
It's interesting how they don't even serve water with the meal. Maybe it's a tactic to get you to spend some money on drinks with your meal (or after you are done eating).
What a disaster if you compare it with Korean Air back in time when they operated on this route. Then someone says TW and KE are the same 😂😅
ReplyDeleteWhy a disaster? For Koreans the seat pitch is fully fine because they're shorter than Europeans on average. The stopover is annoying though, but that's gone now.
DeleteThere are no PTVs on a 13 hour flight, little recline and the food is tiny.
DeleteOn my recent long-haul flights people were all on their phones. Barely anyone used the TVs and I didn't even touch mine. I am not saying it's good not to have the option, but I wouldn't call it a disaster. Especially when flying East.
DeleteI think it was AA which started to remove IFE and their logic is that everyone has their own. A few years later they started bringing it back. Yes, we all have phones and/or tablets but when you are sitting in a plane not everyone wants to deal with it.
DeleteIt would be good if they provided charging ports on their seats.
DeleteThe Bishkek airport looks somewhat like old Zagreb airport. Agree with Nemjee, low cast carrier on such a long flight is a bit difficult. I would prefer Qatar or Turkish.
ReplyDeleteFantastic trio report. Like that Bishkek stop-over, but not sure why it lasted so long, 2 sounds pretty long
ReplyDeleteI am completely confused. Certain analysts explained that potential JU flights to ICN is unprofitable with A332 and now we see that even LCC may use same equipment on even longer ZAG route. Either they will go bankrupt or he is ignorant and false analyst
ReplyDeleteThat's because that person is outright stupid. You just can't make such claims as there are way too many variables to consider.
DeleteProfitability of BEG-ICN depends on a series of different factors. First thing first we don't know at what price tickets would sell, what kind of yield JU would command on the route. Then there is also the question of cargo and how much of it there would be on that route. Then there is the ratio of transfers vs. O&D etc.
Add to that the flight path and whether JU would overfly Siberia or not.
A 10 hour flight with a LF of 40% could be making more money than a 10 hour flight with 90% LF. Why? Because their costs and yields could be fundamentally different despite their identical stage length.
In other words, what he says about this route just goes to show how he lacks basic aviation knowldge.
Good cargo loads on far East Asian destinations is of paramount importance.
DeleteIf JU can get steady clients for its cargo hold it can sustain the route with low load factors and a lot of transfer traffic until O&D demand matures for the route and cabin loads exceed 70% year round.
Just my2cents
China/Korea to Europe no problem to make good money in Cargo. Current price level ex China to EUR is 5 to 6 USD per kg and flights are packed. E-Commerce even higher
DeleteIt's not so much JU that needs to do more but BEG, Serbia and cargo forwarders. These three need to join forces and work on promoting BEG as a convenient entry point for cargo. For a short period of time there were those cargo flights from China but those ended.
DeleteBelgrade has a good geographical location and with a growing highway network in the country goods can travel much faster. However, this can't happen on its own especiall with BUD bein so close.
Wondering if JU trucks to beyond BEG destinations or has BEG so much demand that they can fill it with BEG plus Cargo for their narrowbody flights network. On JU Cargo webpage it says nothing about regular RFS beyond BEG
DeleteJU could easy truck to Balkan dest or VCE MXP VIE LNZ MUC FRA
Based on my experience with JU Cargo, they do not sell it themeselves. Whenever I contacted them they directed me to one of their GSA. I guess it's up to them to find ways to combine plane+truck if they are handling the transfer of cargo.
DeleteIf someone from Bulgaria is importing goods from China, then it would be up to the forwarding companies or the local GSA to create the combination with trucks. Air Serbia's role is to load it in China and then unload it in Belgrade.
Few months ago we imported some goods from Bologna. Their GSA over there loaded everything on the A319 from MXP since the ATR was full from BLQ.
Depends, Swiss has in ZRH an extensive truck network and schedule, which u can book like a regular flight
DeleteThey serve Austria, Italy, Germany, Benelux and I think even CPH
I represent a large US Carrier in Switzerland. We have regular scheduled trucks on which Northam/Latam stations can book and we offer them ex ZRH to BRN BSL GVA MXP CDG STR MUC DUS FRA BRU AMS. Adhoc trucks we even do to FCO BCN MAD or LHR.
But of course it all depends on the airline and the airport. From Switzerland apx 30% of all the Airfreight exports leave Switzerland on trucks
China-BEG or beyond has for sure a deal. Demand from China is strong and I know importers in EUR try every possible routing they can find. (Some even via MLE)
Fantastic trip report, thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteLegroom looks fine for Koreans but we would suffer.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to write this, it doesn't even look that bad. I think Iberia has worse legroom and Iberia's A330s have an even worse interior.
DeleteThose are used to Latin America flights though and they are not too tall either.
DeleteTry flying on Austrian Airlines' B767 in economy class, their seatpitch is 30'.
DeleteAir Serbia on the other hand is either 31 or 32, can't remember now.
Honestly I'm suprised by how much complimentary food they serve. I personally don't mind not having an IFE because let's be real, on most airlines they don't even work properly. So I always save myself the headache and watch netflix on my phone with my bluetooth noise canceling headphones. Now this route will be even better without the FRU layover.
ReplyDeleteI read a comment comparing T'way to Korean Air, and honestly Korean Air is nothing special either. IFE barely worked on their B777 (On B789 it did though), food was just alright, crew was mid, either super nice or pretty rude and bossy, seats as always uncomfortable. The only reason I'd choose Korean Air over T'way is because of my Flying Blue FQTV.
And I thought that only JU have problems with IFE. Most people claims that here at comments
DeleteThank you very much for the very interesting tripreport
ReplyDeleteCroatia, despite its sky high prices is a lowcost flight country, blame useless flag carrier. Without the stop in Bishkek this flight maybe profitable as it brings in tourists doing a European tour which includes a few nights in Croatia.
ReplyDeleteCroatian flag carrier is not only useless, it's much worse than just that. It's disaster and shame. For the country, I can't agree it to be "lowcost flight country". Croatian airports are served by healthy mixture of legacy, leisure, and low cost carriers, but with one more segment no one here talks about, and those are private and VIP flights on business and corporate jets or even bigger commercial aircraft operating in VIP configuration. And croatian tourism in general offers the widest range of services for every pocket - from cheap and simple apartments and campings on one side to marinas for luxurious boats and yachts and 5 star hotels would they be small boutique and wellness hotels or almost all biggest and most known hotel chains. From UK working class on one side to Hollywood celebrities, top sportsmen, tycoons and royalties on the other.
Delete