Taegeuk: Korean Air & Asiana A380sPublished: February 2023
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A big thanks to Aviation400 for providing me with these A380 models. Check out my reviews of this mould, which is by far the best in 400 scale.
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KE & OZ: Early Adopter & Late Bloomer
Both the major Korean airlines have had a difficult time of it in recent years with huge debts at both. The fallout from COVID led to the South Korean Government announcing the merger of Korean Air and Asiana in November 2020, but although the South Korean side of the merger has proceeded smoothly getting the necessary regulatory approvals from foreign competition authorities has been a lengthy process. In fact, as of January 2023 approvals from the EU, US, UK and Japan are still outstanding. Failure to gain approval from any one of these could yet lead to the collapse of the merger but presently the Korean Air CEO Walter Cho is optimistic that the takeover will be completed in 2023. Even if it does go through it looks likely that Asiana will operate as a subsidiary initially and amalgamation won't happen until 2024.
Since both of the Korean majors operate the A380 and are merging it seems sensible to look at Korean A380s as a single topic. It would be hard to see either Korean Air or Asiana's A380 operations as a complete success, however as with elsewhere the type has been reliable even when operating on incredibly short sectors.
Korean Air was an early adopter of the big Airbus ordering 5 in June, 2003. This order was topped up with three further examples in February 2008 despite the type's delay into service. Korean planned to operate the type on high-density services from Seoul to the US West Coast and Europe. At that point service entry was scheduled for 2010 with the additional aircraft joining in 2012 and 2013. At the time the Korean Air Chairman Yan Ho Cho said:
"Our decision to purchase the A380 aircraft is in line with our vision to become a global leading carrier providing the best quality of service to our passengers"
"Our decision to purchase the A380 aircraft is in line with our vision to become a global leading carrier providing the best quality of service to our passengers"
Korean Air was clearly getting excited as a year later it upped the order once again and added another pair of A380s due to be delivered in May and June 2014. At that point all was sunny with KE in terms of operating profit but net income was a loss mainly due to foreign exchange conversion losses - something that would continue to be a problem for both Korean and Asiana. As they said:
"Even amongst the global economic crunch and shrinking international travel demand, the airline managed to make an operating profit of 22.6 billion KRW,” it said in a statement. Net income for the fiscal year ending December 31 was a loss of 1,957.9 billion KRW, largely impacted by foreign exchange conversion losses resulting from the weaker Won"
"Even amongst the global economic crunch and shrinking international travel demand, the airline managed to make an operating profit of 22.6 billion KRW,” it said in a statement. Net income for the fiscal year ending December 31 was a loss of 1,957.9 billion KRW, largely impacted by foreign exchange conversion losses resulting from the weaker Won"
Asiana on the other hand was a late customer for the A380 and placed its order in January 2011 for six aircraft. It was the first new customer since 2007 and cost Asiana 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion). Deliveries were scheduled to begin in 2014 and continue to 2017. Obviously the Asiana order would create head-to-head competition with Korean Air on routes like Seoul to London Heathrow.
Korean Air Delivery & Configuration
Korean Air took delivery of its first A380 on June 17, 2011. Unsurprisingly Korean's initial routes for the type were short-haul services to Tokyo and Hong Kong with Bangkok following soon after. Long haul flights started soon after with New York in August, followed by Paris in September and Los Angeles in October.
Korean's A380s offered a bar and lounge area for premium passengers at the back of the upper deck. It was, at the time, also the only airline to dedicate the whole of the upper deck of the aircraft to business class seating (subsequently Singapore did the same), and configured the plane with the fewest total number of seats, at 407. The overall configuration was three class (12 First Class, 94 Business Class and 301 Economy).
KE's A380s also offer an inflight Duty Free "showcase" at the back of the lower deck, occupying a space equivalent to 13 economy seats. This can be seen above.
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By June 2013 Korean had taken delivery of six aircraft and was using the aircraft on its double-daily New York JFK service, 12-17 Los Angeles flights and the daily service to Frankfurt. It also planned to fly 3 of 7 weekly flights on the Seoul to Atlanta service but interestingly had no plans to fly the type on its Heathrow services. It wasn't until March 2016 that Heathrow gained A380s.
Asiana Delivery & Configuration
Asiana received its first A380 in May 2014 becoming the 11th A380 operator. All of the Asiana 380s are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines unlike the Korean examples, which are powered the Engine Alliance GP7200 series. The Chairman of the Kumho Asiana Group Park Sam Koo said:
“We are delighted to receive our first A380 today, which is key to our future vision and fleet modernisation strategy. I am confident that Asiana can further enhance its level of customer service and that the A380 will play a significant role in helping us to remain at the forefront of the airline business.”
“We are delighted to receive our first A380 today, which is key to our future vision and fleet modernisation strategy. I am confident that Asiana can further enhance its level of customer service and that the A380 will play a significant role in helping us to remain at the forefront of the airline business.”
This hasn't really come to pass due to Asiana's weakness and the COVID pandemic. As with Korean, Asiana initially began services to regional destinations - Tokyo, Hong Kong, Osaka Kansai and Bangkok. Services to Los Angeles began on August 19, 2014, delayed from their original July 30th date.
The Asiana A380 cabin configuration
The Asiana A380s were configured in a denser setup than the Korean Air ones. They seat 495 in a three class arrangement (12 First Class (Main Deck), 66 Business Class (Quadra Smartium; Upper Deck only) and 417 Travel Class Seats (Upper Deck: 106 in 2-4-2; Main Deck: 311 in 3-4-3)).
Above: The First Class seat 2A
Right: In September 2019 the First Class was renamed Business Suite and First Class was discontinued |
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Asiana services would expand as more aircraft were delivered. New York began in June 2015 and Frankfurt was added on March 1, 2017 - 3 months after the last of the six aircraft arrived.
COVID & Beyond
On March 10, 2020 Korean Air announced it would immediately ground all its A380s, as well as 90 other aircraft. Initially the plan was simply to ground them until April 25 but it would be September before a single A380 returned to service, while none of the rest would fly commercially again until mid-2022. Meanwhile Asiana at the time continued to fly its A380s to Frankfurt and Los Angeles but the load factors were shocking - around 20% to Frankfurt. Unsurprisingly Asiana was quick to follow Korean's lead and announced the groundig of its A380s on March 12th. A single aircraft remained in service until March 30th.
The single A380 Korean Air was flying during 2020 and 2021 appears to have flown mainly to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, although both lost A380 service in 2022 in June and August respectively. Some further Korean Air A380s returned to service in mid-2022, with JFK restarting in June and Bangkok in September. New York was served daily with Bangkok served thrice weekly so neither city got exclusive A380 service.
By January 2023 Korean Air had just half of its A380 fleet back in service. These currently operate long-haul flights to Los Angeles and New York but also much shorter flights to Bangkok and Taipei. The Seoul-Taipei service is only a 3 hour flight covering the 907 miles, but had seen regular Korean A380 service until February 2020. None of these current services are year round but the Taipei flight replaces a mix of 737s and A330s on the daily service, representing a massive capacity boost.
Korean doesn't seem likely to improve its product aboard its A380s either, which is seen as being somewhat dated as described by KNAviation:
"While the first class seats are (as one would expect) large, they lack privacy as they are not equipped with doors and the wall on the aisle side of the seat is relatively low.
In business class, the seats are simple lie-flat seats with limited storage space and privacy. Because of the six-abreast configuration, window seats in business class do not offer direct aisle access. That said, the configuration is relatively nice for people traveling in a pair (assuming they want to communicate during the flight)."
"While the first class seats are (as one would expect) large, they lack privacy as they are not equipped with doors and the wall on the aisle side of the seat is relatively low.
In business class, the seats are simple lie-flat seats with limited storage space and privacy. Because of the six-abreast configuration, window seats in business class do not offer direct aisle access. That said, the configuration is relatively nice for people traveling in a pair (assuming they want to communicate during the flight)."
Asiana meanwhile had already been showing signs that it wasn't getting the intended returns with its A380s prior to the pandemic. It had downsized the New York and Los Angeles services to smaller A350s and in 2019 had removed its first-class product (only available on the A380s). It wasn't until June 2022 that the type would fly for Asiana again - flying daily to Bangkok from June 25. From July 23 Los Angeles was restarted thrice weekly. These services were scheduled only to last until October 29, the end of the summer season, when A330s and A350s respectively would fill in the roster, but plans appeared to change.
As of January 2023 Asiana has added further A380 services. Los Angeles has just increased to four times a week and will go daily from March. When this flight ends in late October the aircraft will be switched to the daily Frankfurt service. Bangkok services also continue until the end of October with a daily service. The last A380 destination is Sydney, which has had a three times weekly service since January 12, although this is only scheduled to last until February 28.
Asiana operates all its A380s routes presently with just three of its six aircraft, although it appears a fourth is in the process of being reactivated.
Retirement
With both Korean majors struggling financially even before the pandemic, followed by the massive capacity cust during it and the anticipated merger between them it was clear the A380s were hardly ideal. It was therefore little surprise when in October 2021 it was announced that both airlines would be retiring their A380s within five years. At the same time it was announced that the 747-8s would only last a further ten years thereby eliminating four engine flying at Korean by 2031.
It currently seems unlikely that all the Korean Air or Asiana A380s will ever re-enter service. Considering the low likelihood of being able to sell these frames and the fact that the Asiana A380s are all between 7 and 10 years old they clearly have not been a good investment. It seems certain that all will be gone by the end of 2027 and in hindsight it appears that Korean Air acquired too many for its needs and Asiana acquired its mostly to keep up with its neighbour.
References
2008 February. Korean Air orders three more Airbus A380 planes. Reuters
2009 February. Korean increases A380 order. Travelmole.com
2011, January. UPDATE 1-Asiana Airlines orders 6 Airbus A380s. Reuters
2011, June. Korean Air becomes first Northeast Asian A380 operator. CAPA
2013, June. Korean Air A380: What you need to know. Business Traveller
2022, June. Asiana to Resume A380 Operations. AviationSourceNews
2022, October. Korean Air Firms Up Winter Airbus A380 Plans. Simple Flying
2023 January. Petrauskaite, G. Korean Air to complete Asiana Airlines takeover in 2023, CEO says. Aerotime.aero
2023 January. Bodell, L. The UK Government Needs More Time To Approve The Korean Air-Asiana Air Merger. Simple Flying
2023 January. Nukina, K. Asiana Airlines A380s in 2023: Routes, Fleet & Retirement Plans. KN Aviation
2023 January. Nukina, K. Korean Air A380s in 2023: Routes, Fleet & Retirement Plans. KN Aviation