After nearly ten years suspension, Star Alliance member, Asiana Airlines will begin offering two-class service from its Seoul Incheon hub to Istabul’s Ataturk Airport. The new route will begin March 29th and will be operated on a thrice-weekly basis with B777-200 equipment.
The route is currently well served with fellow Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines offering six weekly flights with a mix of A330 and A340 aircraft, whilst SkyTeam is represented by Korean Air, which serves the route on a four-times weekly service.
The route has seen over 156,000 O+D passengers travelling between the city pairs between October 2009 and October 2010, with Korean Air the market leader, currently having a 34% share of this traffic, there is significant leakage with Emirates having an 11% share of traffic via Dubai.
Asiana already operates a number of routes into Europe, with a thrice-weekly service to Charles de Gaulle, a daily service to Frankfurt, a four-times weekly to London Heathrow, with shorter sector services to the Russian markets of Khabarovsk, served thrice-weekly and Yuzhno, also operated thrice-weekly with narrowbody A320 aircraft. All other European routes are operated with widebody equipment from its Incheon hub.
Istanbul will be a natural choice for its latest European market, with its partner Turkish Airlines proving significant feed at Istanbul, and Asiana offering Star Alliance passengers a significant network in Incheon. The South Korea to Europe market has seen over 2 million O+D passengers fly between October 2009 and October 2010, with Korean Air having a 35% share of this traffic which Asiana will be looking to target.
Korea is a developing market and it is likely that the new route is Asiana’s response to the Middle East carrier entering the Seoul market, with Etihad, Emirates and Qatar all operating Incheon on a daily basis, with all three of the big three operators enjoying success and the profits that have followed.
Using the network that Star Alliance membership can accord airlines, Asiana will access onward traffic via its partner Turkish Airlines. There is inevitable conflict that arises between two carriers when competing on the route, however there will be a multitude of connections offered from behind their respective hubs.
The opportunity to enter the Istanbul market must be compelling as Asiana does not have new aircraft to serve the route. The airline has also struggled to maintain profitability and operating a ten hour sector does represent a risk. However, there will be sufficient cooperation between Asiana to Turkish to negate exposure on the new route.
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