Korea’s T’way Air inks LOI for three A330s

T’way Air (TW, Seoul Gimpo) has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an unspecified lessor covering three A330-300s it plans to use in opening up its first longhaul routes. The budget airline said in a statement to local media the widebody jets, its first, will allow it to start flights to Singapore Changi and Malaysia as well as Sydney Kingsford Smith (Australia), Zagreb (Croatia), and Honolulu (Hawaii). T’way Air has set up a special task force to study the aircraft’s operating requirements before it formally commits to their induction, which is due to take place from late 2021 onwards. T’way Air is currently an all-Boeing operator with twenty-seven B737-800s in its fleet, all of which are leased. Prior to the type’s grounding and the COVID-19 pandemic, it planned to induct ten B737-8s by 2025. Deliveries of the first trio of MAX were to have taken place in 2019 but none to date have arrived. In pre-pandemic times, T’way Air served various cities across Korea, as well as in Thailand, Viet Nam, Japan, China, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, Laos, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Hong Kong.