Inside Korean Air’s new A350
The Korean flag-carrier’s A350 jets prepare for take-off.

Executive Traveller exclusive
Korean Air’s new Airbus A350 jets will take wing this week, setting course for Asia and later in the year Europe.
However, the first two A350s will be very familiar to travellers – while dressed in the SkyTeam member’s signature pale blue palette, inside are the business and economy seats of Asiana Airlines, the former rival now being taken over by Korean Air.
That’s because these two A350s were originally intended to be flown by Asiana, and have since been inherited by Korean Air in the US$1.6bn mega-merger.
As a result, Korean Air’s debutante A350s contain 28 of the Asiana Smartium business class seats rather than the more modern Prestige Suites 2 design.
This doesn’t take much shine off the A350: the Smartium seats still give you a 1-2-1 layout, with paired seats in the middle and staggered seats at the windows, and convert into a fully lie-flat bed.
The seats have been reupholstered with the same covering as the new Prestige Suites 2 of Korean Air’s Boeing 787-10s, which is also coming to the Boeing 777s this year.
Behind the 28 business class seats are 283 economy recliners.
Korean Air’s new premium economy, previously promised for 2024, is now not expected to break cover until the first Boeing 777 refit in the coming months.
Korean Air has signed up for 33 new Airbus A350s, with 27 of the longer-range A350-1000 model and six A350-900s.
Beginning January 27, these first two A350-900s will fly from Seoul to Osaka and Fukuoka route, followed by Taipei in March.
September 2025 is expected to see A350 flights to Madrid and Rome as the initial long-range destinations; Korean Air notes that the A350-900 can fly “to all European destinations and most cities in North America.”
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