Korean low cost carrier T’Way Air, which will launch its first European service to Zagreb next month, is satisfied with ticket sales on the route so far. Flights from Seoul to the Croatian capital will operate with a technical stop in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan on the outbound leg and nonstop on the inbound, with a 347-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. “The average reservation rate per departing flight out of Seoul is around 83%. Considering the flights are yet to launch, forward bookings are going well. Once the route becomes operational, we expect it to become better known and for word to spread among travellers. Therefore, we expect for sales to improve”, a spokesperson from T’Way Air said.
T’Way’s Zagreb flights, which will be inaugurated on May 16, will also serve as a test run for the budget carrier’s upcoming new destinations in Europe. The airline plans to commence a four weekly service to Paris in late June, five weekly to Rome in August, daily to Barcelona in September, as well as a daily rotation to Frankfurt from January of next year. “Zagreb’s advantage is that there is no direct competition, but the proportion of passengers travelling though tour operators and holiday packages on this route is high, so collaboration with travel agencies will be important”, T’Way Air said.
In 2019, when flights between the two cities were last operational, Korean Air captured almost the entire Seoul travel market to and from Zagreb. The absolute majority of its customers on the route, over 95%, were point to point passengers and almost all originated from South Korea. The only other South Korean city with sizeable traffic to Zagreb is its second largest – Busan. In 2019, almost 5.000 passengers travelled indirectly between Busan and Zagreb on a single itinerary. The overwhelming majority of Korean travellers enter Croatia on a separate ticket via other European markets after spending several days at their original destination.
