SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea's low-cost operator T’way Air has joined the widebody club with the introduction of the first Airbus A330-300 jet to its fleet.
Before the delivery, the airline was an all-Boeing operator with 27 Boeing 737-800 jets in the fleet.
T’way's A330-300 is configured to accommodate 347 passengers in total, of which 12 are in business and 335 in economy. With this configuration, T’way is the only budget carrier in South Korea to introduce the business class for air travelers.
The plane is the first of three A330s announced in June 2021.
It will undergo testing and conduct training flights for the crew before starting scheduled operations on the Seoul Gimpo-Jeju route at the end of March.
T’way could also deploy its new widebody on long-haul routes to Australia, Eastern Europe, and Singapore, a company official said.
The owner of the aircraft is Irish lessor AerCap. Airbus delivered the A330-300 to AerCap in 2009 and it entered into service with Aeroflot the same year in October. After serving for the Russian carrier for nearly 10 years, it was leased to Thai AirAsia X from December 2019 to December 21.
