A. Bogetić 
Zagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG) will be served with scheduled long-haul flights yet another summer season after a period during which its longest scheduled flight was Qatar Airways’ year-round, nonstop service to Doha (DOH). Alen Šćurić via zamaaero announced earlier on February 15 that T’way Air began selling tickets from one of its hubs, Seoul Incheon (ICN), to Zagreb. The sales began only a day or two after the European Commission published its approval of Korean Air’s acquisition of Asiana Airlines. In its press release, the EC stated that Korean Air must allow T’way Air to take over four “overlap” routes as a competition measure ahead of the merger with Asiana–all flights between Seoul and the following cities: Barcelona, Paris, Frankfurt, and Rome. Furthermore, the same press release also stated that T’way Air must have access to “assets” in the form of slots, traffic rights, and aircraft appropriate for the allocated routes.
Otherwise, EX-YU Aviation News exclusively published the flight announcement back on January 7. Meanwhile, The Korea JoongAng Daily‘s Seo Ji-Eun reported further details about the flight: the Zagreb-bound flight will have a technical stop Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as T’way Air’s A330-300 equipment has less range than the lower-capacity A330-200 and will need to refuel going west. However, the Seoul-bound flight will be non-stop, with a flight duration of about 11 hours. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that that ICN-ZAG fares will start from 345 USD, while zamaaero stated that return fares start from 547 EUR. As is the case with some low-cost carriers on long-haul flights, T’way Air’s A333s are configured in two-class layout even though the carrier operates on a high-density economy or Y-class model.
ZAG has been served by a number of both charter and scheduled long-haul flights over the course of the past several years, although they have not evolved into more permanent operations as of yet. One of the earliest scheduled long-haul flights to ZAG in the 2000s was operated by now-defunct Canadian carrier Skyservice Airlines from Toronto Pearson (YYZ), although it was a once-weekly summer service with a refueling stop as it was operated by the company’s Boeing 757-200s. In the summer of 2015, Canadian-Greek carrier SkyGreece Airlines launched once-weekly nonstop flights between YYZ and ZAG using its Boeing 767-300ER, although the service abruptly stopped in late August that year when the entire company suspended operations. The following summer, Air Transat launched a once-weekly summer service between YYZ and ZAG with the Airbus A330-300. The summer of 2018 saw scheduled service introduced by Air Canada Rouge and Korean Air. Air Canada Rouge launched its own summer service betweeen YYZ and ZAG with a four-times weekly frequency using their Boeing 767-300ERs, competing against Air Transat’s same flight. After years of charter flights, Korean Air finally introduced scheduled operations from ICN to ZAG, although the ICN-bound flights were a part of a multi-stop route that returned to Seoul from Zurich (ZRH).
ZAG’s prospects of growing their network of scheduled long-haul flights looked very strong until the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, during which Air Transat, Air Canada Rouge, and Korean Air all suspended their services to the Croatian capital. Only Air Transat resumed seasonal operations after a period. T’way Air’s introduction of seasonal scheduled flights from ICN are a significant boost to ZAG’s network currently dominated by short haul flights.
Editor’s note (February 20): T’way Air’s official press release about the Seoul Incheon-Zagreb flights starting on May 16 can be seen here.
