Korean Air will unveil its new generation first and business class seats on June 3 for the launch of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
The new products will initially be available on three of the new aircraft on the Seoul-New York JFK service, and by the end of the year six aircraft are expected to have the latest offering.
The business class cabin will have 55 of the new Prestige seats in a 2-3-2 configuration and the seats will recline to a fully-flat 180 degrees (as opposed to 170 degrees on the previous Prestige Plus product).
The first class cabin on the B777-300ER will have eight new generation seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. They will be fully-flat beds, 12cm wider than the four year old Kosmo Sleeper, with a seat width of 69cm. The individual AVOD screens will be 58cm (15cm wider than the current offering), and there will also be privacy screens and large extendable tables.
The new
products will be available on the eight A380s and 10 B787s to be delivered in
2010, and the airline says it will continuously upgrade its current aircrafts
by adopting the new seats.
It was only
four years ago that the airline equipped 15 of its aircraft with the Kosmo
Sleeper (offering fully-flat 205cm bed), and Prestige Class seats on 26
aircrafts. The new generation seats will eventually be rolled out across the
whole fleet starting with the trunk routes.
Mr Jong Hwan Kim, general manager of the airline in the UK, said the new seats showed the airline’s commitment to offering its passengers the highest service and said it would strengthen its position as a global carrier. He was also was eager to point out that although these were certainly difficult times for the aviation industry and passenger levels are estimated to drop, Korean Air aims to carry 20 million passengers per year in 10 years time, expanding its destinations from 116 to 140 across six countries.
Images of the new seats are not available until closer to the launch in June.
For more information see koreanair.com.
Report by Felicity Cousins
