South Korea’s flag carrier has announced changes to its flight schedule for the upcoming winter season, which will see the airline temporarily cut some routes while boost frequency on others “due to rising demand”.
Korean Air’s winter schedule starts on the last Sunday of every October, and the summer schedule begins on the last Sunday of every March. This year’s winter schedule will run from October 27 this year to March 28, 2020.
Below are the changes in flight frequency:
- Incheon-Auckland and Incheon-Brisbane: Operated five and four times a week respectively, but both flights will operate daily during the winter season starting October 27.
- Incheon-Manila: Increase from 14 times a week to 18 times a week from October 27.
- Incheon-Beijing: Increase from 14 times a week to 17 times a week from October 28.
- Incheon-Guam: Increase from 14 times a week to 20 times a week from December 3.
- Incheon-Honolulu: Increase from seven times a week to 11 times a week from December 9.
Aircraft upgrades
Korean Air says it will also deploy a wide-body aircraft such as B747-8 and A380 on the Oceania routes, in an effort to expand capacity.
Korean Air’s B747-8 plane is configured with 368 seats of which six are first class, 48 are Prestige seats (the airline’s business class product), and 314 are economy class seats. The Prestige seats are located both in the lower deck and the upper deck of the aircraft. There are 26 Prestige seats in the lower deck, arranged in a 2-2-2 pattern, while the upper deck is comprised of 22 of the business class seats configured in a 2-2 layout. The pitch of these business class seats is 75 inches, while the width is 21 inches.
Meanwhile, its A380 aircraft has 407 seats, with 12 first class seats, 301 economy class seats, and 94 Prestige seats. The business class seats are entirely in the upper deck, arranged in 2-2-2 pattern, although the row near the exit is arranged in a 2-2 layout. The pitch of these seats is 74 inches, while the width is 21 inches.
Suspended flights for winter season
The airline will temporarily suspend selected flights during the winter season, including its Russia routes such as Incheon-St. Petersburg on October 24 and Incheon-Irkutsk on October 25. Incheon-Zagreb-Zurich (merged route) will be temporarily suspended from December 2, and the Incheon-Zagreb, Incheon-Zurich individual routes will resume from March 31. It will also suspend its Incheon-Kagoshima and Incheon-Oita services between January and March 2020.
New routes set to operate
Earlier this year, the airline announced that it would launch new flights to Clark, a resort town in the Philippines, on October 27.
The South Korean flag carrier will also launch three new routes to China, including a thrice weekly service to Zhangjiajie, a four times weekly service to Nanjing, and a thrice weekly service to Hangzhou.
