Korean Air has been making great strides in foreign coverage of their airline. I see their commercials at business hotels all the time. I would say that their international exposure ranks among the top, with the likes of Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. (Some attribute this increased exposure to the influence of one of the Chairman’s daughters who has a marketing background). Whatever the reason, this is good for Korean Air.
Another thing that will be good for Korean Air is the delivery of their A380s from Airbus, which are expected to begin next year. They plan on using a three class configuration with lie-flat business class seats, which will make them one of the most spacious aircraft in the world with only 400 to 450 seats.
According to this USA Today article they plan on operating them on regional routes (China and Japan) before eventually adding them to the American market. The commentors on USA Today were curious about why they would use a jumbo jet on such short routes, particularly ones where competition and frequencies are so high, because at first glance it doesn’t make any sense. The author seemed to think that it made sense with 400 to 450 seats, but knowing the market, I disagree. (KE currently operates 3 class 777s on these routes and additional 150 seats per flight would be an increase of 450~600 seats capacity on each route per day. An increase of that size is likely not even be possible in the Chinese market, where Air Service Agreements tend to be closely regulated. This would inevitably lead to a decrease of overall frequencies to abide by the agreement, which hurts their proposition to the customer by offering fewer travel times. Therefore I think the motivation for this decision lies elsewhere.)
Personally, I think that Korean Air is still gun-shy over its safety record. While it has improved dramatically over the past 10 years, it also wouldn’t take much to bring back their old image in everyone’s mind. Therefore it goes without saying that a trans-Pacific incident with a plane full of people could be just the type of thing they want to avoid. Giving their pilots ample time to get acquainted with the new aircraft by practicing (KE operates thrice daily between both PEK-ICN and PVG-ICN and four times daily between ICN and NRT) in a region with multiple airports capable of handling diverted flights and close to home might seem overly cautious, but in today’s cutthroat airline industry where almost no accidents occur, recovering from one could take years.
In another interesting note, Asiana Airlines is also introducing lie-flat seats in business class and making its planes a little roomier while carriers in America, Australia and Europe are considering eliminating First Class altogether. Airline trends are generally up but, if one watches these developments in the news, it should go without saying which regions are doing the best.
[...] as Asiana prides itself on providing premier service and the competition recently announced a spacious configuration on its own A380s, one can assume that Asiana’s planes will be at least as spacious as the competition’s. [...]