Korean Air ! KAL ! KE

Korean 747-8I order snaps jumbo dry spell
By [url=mailto://]Jon Ostrower[/url]












An order by Korean Air for five Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental snaps a nearly three year dry spell for the passenger-configured jumbo, and could signal the start of a slow climb for large airplane purchases in the coming years.
Boeing last received an order for the 747-8 Intercontinental from Lufthansa on 6 December 2006, when the company's latest iteration of the venerable 747 was first launched.
Korean's purchase of the 747-8I follows a similar trend by Lufthansa, who has also purchased the A380, and plans to use the 747 as a capacity gap filler between its 300 and 550-seat aircraft. Korean Air has also placed ten firm orders for the A380.
But even with today's order and recent purchases of A380 by airlines like Air Austral for two, and a letter intent signed by Vietnam for four, the large aircraft market remains a niche for Airbus and Boeing because of potential market volatility, says one analyst.
"Operating large aircraft can be very dangerous when the market tanks," says vice president of analysis for the Teal Group, Richard Aboulafia. "But the Korean order shows that the 747-8I still will have part of this niche, despite some very aggressive A380 pricing."
Boeing's large aircraft segement has been dominated by orders from the 777-300ER configured with more than 365 seats, which has acted as a replacement to older 747s.
For example, carriers like Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Air New Zealand have replaced the four-engine jet with the twin-engine 777-300ER, opting to maintain the size of premium cabins, while reducing economy class seating.
Aboulafia adds that Boeing and Airbus widebody backlogs are dominated by future orders for their respective long-range high-capacity twin-engine jetliners.
"The big plane market has been all but obliterated by the huge popularity of the long-range mini-jumbos, especially the 777-300ER and A350 XWB," adds Aboulafia.
"As the saying goes, nobody ever went bankrupt flying planes that were too small. Very few carriers will replace 747-400s with equally large or larger planes. There's just too much to be said for getting rid of 20% of your lowest yield passengers and focusing on improving profits. You also get greater schedule and route flexibility with smaller long-range planes," says Aboulafia.
Boeing estimates 740 large passenger aircraft over the next twenty years, a forecast that was slashed by almost 25%, down from 980 large aircraft. Of those 740, Boeing believes just over 500 will be passenger aircraft.
"That means a handful of [747 v. A380] campaigns moving forward, all those campaigns are going to be tough. I like to say, lots of hand to hand combat," said Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing at the Dubai air show, before the Korean order was announced.
Tinseth conceded at the show that "it's a really tough market to be selling big airplanes."
Though he added that the 747-8 family has been "selling in total about where we expected, we've been very pleased with the strength of the freighter, we're dissapointed that we haven't sold more passenger airplanes."
Boeing holds orders for 110 747-8 aircraft, split between 78 freighters, 7 VIPs and 25 configured for airline use.
Tinseth believes that the large airplane market will rebound when the economy begins to improve.
"Ultimately we believe that market is going to pick up when airlines...this coming cycle...start to replace their older 747s."
A recent report by 7SEAS Aviation consultancy showed that one in ten 747-400s is now in storage, a number expected to grow as older aircraft are retired.
Boeing offers the 747-8I, a 5.6m stretch over the existing 747-400, in VIP and airline configured variants. Entry into service is expected in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Boeing announced 3 December that it had passed the 90% design release mark on the new -8I aircraft.

By Seonjin Cha

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, the world’s largest commercial-aircraft maker, said it will delay its first delivery of an A380 jet to Korean Air Lines Co. because production of the superjumbo is behind schedule.

Korean Air will get its first A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, in the second quarter of 2011 instead of in December as previously planned, the Seoul-based carrier said in an e-mail today. Airbus spokesman Sean Lee confirmed the delay in a separate e-mail.

Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., which last month booked 240 million euros in charges on its A380, wants to deliver about 20 of the superjumbos this year, or twice as many as in 2009. As of March 9, it had shipped three to customers. Korean Air, the country’s biggest air carrier, has placed orders for 10 A380 jets to meet rising travel demand and cut fuel costs Some of the Korean Air orders were for deliver as late as 2014.

Korean Air shares rose 1 percent to 69,700 won at the close in Seoul trading compared with the key Kospi index’s 0.4 percent gain. The stock has advanced 27 percent this year

Korean Air 787 deliveries slip 10 more months
By Ghim-Lay Yeo
][img(2,2)]http://adserver.adtech.de/adserv%7C3.0%7C289%7C1061237%7C0%7C277%7CADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=[group][/img]

Korean Air (KAL) has had the delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner delayed by ten months, joining a growing list of carriers with delayed deliveries.The airline, which has 10 787-8s on order, had initially expected the first to arrive in 2011. It is scheduled to receive airplane 59, which would have put the delivery later in 2011."The aircraft has been delayed for sure, for about ten months," says a KAL senior executive at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines assembly of presidents.Boeing announced in August that first delivery of the 787 to launch operator All Nippon Airways would be delayed to the mid-first quarter of 2011 from end-2010.Japan Airlines, which has 35 firm orders for the 787, has also had its first delivery delayed to June 2011 earliest from March 2011.KAL says, however, that it will not be adversely affected by the delay."We can manage in the marketplace for now with our current fleet," says the senior executive.The carrier is also scheduled to take delivery of its first Airbus A380 in May 2011. It has 10 of the superjumbo jet on order.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/05/349366/korean-air-787-deliveries-slip-10-more-months.html

Korean Air A380s to have just 407 seats
By David Kaminski-Morrow

Korean Air is to configure its Airbus A380 aircraft with just 407 seats, the lowest-density layout for the type of any carrier so far.

The airline has disclosed details of its seating arrangement for the twin-deck aircraft, which will include an all-business upper deck.

Korean Air says this deck will have 94 lie-flat sleeper seats, with 74in pitch.

This will give business passengers a sense of "exclusivity", says passenger business division chief Walter Cho.

Travellers on the upper deck will be able to feel "like they're travelling in their own private jet", he adds.

On the lower deck there will be 12 first-class and 301 economy-class seats.

Korean Air is to put the aircraft into service in May 2011, initially on short-haul routes to Japan and eastern Asia.

These initial routes will be followed by longer A380 services to the USA and Europe in August.

It has 10 of the type on order, and five will arrive by the end of next year.

Cho says the aircraft's layout will have a level of comfort that will "provide us with a competitive edge".

Five other carriers operate the A380, with Air France's jets fitted with the highest-density layout of 538 seats.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/12/28/351372/korean-air-a380s-to-have-just-407-seats.html

irbus says the first A380 to go to Korean Air has today commenced a final round of flight trials in advance of the delivery of the lead aircraft to the sixth airline to operate the mega-transport.


Korean is buyign 10 A380s and has announced plans for a duty free shop on the aircraft, a first for the aircraft.

After the delivery ceremony in Toulouse, the airline will operate the aircraft starting in June, first on Asian routes from its Seoul hub, and then the North America and Europe, Airbus says.

Korean expects to field 5 A380s this year and five more before the start of 2014. The aircraft are arranged with 407 seats, 12 in first class, 94 in business class, and 301 in economy.

Korean Air has formally taken delivery of its first Airbus A380, becoming the sixth carrier to operate the double-deck aircraft.
The Seoul-based operator accepted the jet, MSN35, during a ceremony at Toulouse.
Korean Air's A380 brings the global fleet to 49 aircraft.
Its entire upper deck has been configured with business-class accommodation, with 94 lie-flat seats, and the aircraft has just 407 seats in total.
Korean Air chairman Yang Ho Cho, speaking in Toulouse, said this made it "the most special A380 so far".
The aircraft also features a specialised 'showcase' of duty-free products displayed as part of its interior arrangement, with a dedicated cabin crew member to assist with service.
"Our customers can browse our selection of duty-free items," said chairman Cho.
Korean Air's A380 becomes the third airline to put an Engine Alliance GP7200-powered A380 into service, behind Emirates and Air France who have 20 between them.

Engine Alliance has secured agreements to fit the GP7200 to 124 of the 220 A380s for which a powerplant selection has been made. Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 has the other 96, with 14 A380s' engines undecided.
Emirates remains the largest A380 operator with 15, followed by Singapore Airlines with 11 and Qantas with 10. The other two operators, Lufthansa and Air France, have seven and five respectively.
Korean Air has ordered 10 A380s, and plans to fly the type initially on services within Asia but expanding to North America as the fleet enlarges. Korean carrier Asiana Airlines has also ordered six A380s.

For shorter routes, the airline recently announced an order for 10 Bombardier CSeries, to be delivered starting in 2015. Woo, speaking to U.S.-based media in Seoul preparing to fly the A380 to JFK, says the aircraft are not for the intra-Korea market, but will be used to either beef up existing flights or start new ones in Japan, China and Southeast Asia. It currently serves 12 Japanese and 25 Chinese cities, but it could look at smaller markets, he says, perhaps Vietnam, Indonesia or Mongolia and Russia. It has not yet decided on how many seats its CS300s will have. He adds that a decision on options will be made in the next two years.

aeroduO5 a écrit:Il reste à voir si les ailes peuvent lever une MTOW supèrieure.