Korean Air has released further details of the configuration of its first A380-800 Superjumbo to be delivered in May 2011.
As previously reported on Business Traveller (see online news October 21), Korean will feature a its lie-flat Prestige Class business seating (for details and pictures of the seats, click here)
The airline now says it will have a total of 94 of these seats on the Upper Deck, reserving it for premium flyers. Senior Vice President and head of the Passenger Business Division of Korean Air, Walter Cho says the effect will mean travellers will “...feel exclusivity like they’re travelling in their own private jet.”
The Prestige Class seats have 74 inches between seats and “extra large seat partitions” offering what Cho says is “normally the comfort and privacy reserved for First Class passengers on other airlines.”
Korean’s configuration of the A380 will mean it will have only 407 seats: 12 first class and 301 economy class seats on the first level, and the 94 Prestige Class seats on the upper deck. It is the first airline to devote the entire A380 second level to the business flyer, although as reported on Business Traveller (see online news December 11), Singapore Airlines is reportedly considering this for its new A380 deliveries in 2011.
Korean Air has ordered ten A380 aircraft with the first five to be delivered by the end of 2011 and an additional five by 2014. The airline will launch its A380s on short haul routes to Japan and East Asia in May, and then expand to Korean Air’s U.S. and European routes in August 2011.
To see how other airlines have configured their A380s, click here
For more information visit koreanair.com
Tom Otley