Korean Air is actively restoring its international passenger network, which has been suspended in parts due to the pandemic.
Korean Air Boeing 777-300ER arriving into Chicago O’Hare – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
With the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport lifting all international flight restrictions and mandatory quarantine requirements, Korean Air is planning to scale up its international network, with it planning to scale up flight frequencies on major international routes and resume flight operations to popular travel destinations in line with the recovery of passenger demand.
To support increased operations, grounded aircraft will be taken out of storage and passenger aircraft converted into freighters will be reconfigured. The moves will push Korean Air up from 30% to 50% of pre-COVID network capacity.
North America
Europe
Europe is seeing frequencies increase in some cases, and other routes coming back to the Korean Air network.
Paris will see weekly flights from July, whilst Frankfurt and Amsterdam will scale to flights five times a week. Milan and Viena will rejoin the network in July, whilst Barcelona and Rome will join in September.
South-East Asia
With South East Asia opening back up, Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Ming City and Manilla will increase to double-daily flights. Going Daily will be Hanoi, Jakarta, Da Nang and Bali
Finally, Kular Lumpar will increase to five flights a week.
North-East Asia.
With Japan reopening to a point for visitors, Korean Air is being quick to restart services. Tokyo-Narita will go double daily, whilst Osaka goes daily Meanwhile Nagoya and Fukuoka will get service boosts.
Sapporo and Okinawa will also be re-introduced.
Moving to the rest of the region, Hong Kong will get daily service, whilst Taipei will get a scaled increase of five services a week. Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia will grow to a daily service, whilst flights to China will remain limited.
Fleet
With all these routes, it’s time to reconfigure aircraft back into passenger aircraft.
The airline will reconfigure three of its 10 converted Boeing 777s to operate as passenger aircraft starting from July. The seats removed from the converted A330 will also be reinstalled so it can begin transporting passengers from July. Some passenger aircraft used for cargo-only flights without cabin modification will also be deployed back on passenger routes.
It takes Korean Air around 10 days to reconfigure the cabin, thus the airline will keep an eye on demand.
In addition, The airline will also carry out destorage maintenance on approximately 20 grounded aircraft in long-term storage to prepare them for operations when needed.
And the Airbus A380?
Korean Air has confirmed that they will operate A380 daily on the New York route and three times a week on the Hong Kong route from July, and daily on the Tokyo-Narita route from September.
Passenger Experience upgrades
The airline has been gradually restoring inflight food and beverage services as well as inflight items such as headphones and blankets since May, and plans to fully restore services in July.
Moreover, the airline has increased inflight meal options. Seasonal Korean dishes will be offered in addition to the airline’s signature Korean dish, bibimbap. From March, new dishes such as spicy pork lettuce wraps and braised mackerel have been introduced and from July, other new dishes such as bulgogi rice with acorn jelly in cold broth and spicy noodles will also become available.
A greater selection of snacks, desserts, alcohol and beverages will also be offered. Sherbet, fruit puree jelly and detox juices will be added in first class, more desserts like cheese and fruit in prestige class, and appetizers in economy class.
Managed restoration
With crews at a premium, Korean Air is managing a very slow and steady resumption of services, with the growth controlled. With a fleet to bring out of storage, as well as converting aircraft, the airline will be looking at the numbers extremely carefully as it adjusts to the world around it
Although it is welcome to see Korean Air add the A380 back to its network. Rumours of its demise seem to be lesser than they were – compared to last year…
.
Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, featuring in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.
Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can follow me on Instagram too!
Also remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.
