Are you going my T'Way?

T'Way Air promises 'sophisticated service' at a 'reasonable price' but Simon Calder finds the two mutually exclusive

- Simon Calder

"The most reasonable price and the most sophisticated service." By hour 10 of my experience aboard the latest flight to link Europe and Asia, I had concluded that the two were mutually exclusive. I was aboard a 15-year-old ex-Aeroflot Airbus A330. But the 5,000-mile flight from Zagreb in Croatia to Seoul in South Korea was undoubtedly the most reasonable price.

A British person buying a flight from Croatia to Korea on a French-built, formerly Russian-owned aircraft? The bill will be in Singapore dollars, obviously. Who cares, when it translates as barely £200. I imagine that fares will increase: any new route tends to operate at a loss to begin with, before building the market and raising average prices.

The flight was far from full, which was a blessed relief after a fairly gruelling day getting into position for the intercontinental journey. My day had begun at Birmingham airport at 6.30am, and had included Beauvais along the way. I even had time to visit central Zagreb before the long-haul flight. After that, all I wanted to do was lie down.