Korean Air Adding Premium Economy, At Expense Of First Class

In late 2023, Korean Air announced plans to introduce premium economy. However, the airline sort of backtracked, because the plan was initially for this to debut on 787s as of 2024. The SkyTeam carrier now has a different plan, and it doesn’t involve the 787, so let’s cover the details…

Korean Air’s plan to offer premium economy

Korean Air plans to introduce its new premium economy product as of late 2025. However, the rollout plans aren’t particularly ambitious:

• The airline plans to install premium economy on 11 of its 25 Boeing 777-300ERs
• The airline then plans to install premium economy on some Airbus A350-900s, though Korean Air is currently taking delivery of these planes without premium economy
• The airline plans to install premium economy on Boeing 777-9s, if/when they’re delivered
• Korean Air no longer plans to introduce premium economy on Boeing 787s, including the 787-10s currently being delivered

The expectation is that the new premium economy will debut on the reconfigured 777-300ERs, and it’s interesting to hear what the airline has planned:

• These 11 777-300ERs will also get the carrier’s new business class, which debuted on the 787-10
• When premium economy is installed on these planes, the first class cabin will be removed (which consists of eight seats, spread across two rows, in a 1-2-1 configuration)

Premium economy is somewhere between business class and economy in terms of comfort level. Seats are typically similar to what you might find in domestic first class within the United States, where you have more legroom, more seat width, more recline, and better service.

As of now, Korean Air hasn’t revealed any details about what we should expect from premium economy, so we don’t know what exactly these seats will be like, and what services will be offered.

While Korean Air hasn’t offered premium economy up until now, the airline has offered among the most generous economy seat pitch in the industry, with planes having 32-34″ of pitch. Hopefully the airline also offers an industry-leading premium economy product.

It’s interesting to see how Korean Air is introducing premium economy, but isn’t going all-in, and introducing it on all long haul planes. After all, it can be tricky to sell premium economy to passengers when it’s only available on part of a journey. You don’t want to book a long haul journey only to end up in premium economy on one segment.

Korean Air’s strategy seems a bit all over the place, if you ask me. For example, logically you’d think that the routes that have demand for first class would also have demand for premium economy (since they’re for markets where there’s more of a willingness to pay), so it’s odd that 777s will either have premium economy or first class, but not both.

Similarly, Korean Air plans to introduce a new first class and even expand its first class footprint in the long run, but for the time being, the airline will further reduce its first class footprint.

The varying takes on premium economy

It’s funny how airline industry executives have varying opinions on the merits of a premium economy cabin.

Among many, the common wisdom is that premium economy is the most efficient use of real estate on a plane, it represents the future, and it’s incredibly lucrative for airlines. But not all airline executives agree, or at a minimum, many airlines have hesitated to introduce this product.

Yes, a lot of airlines have added premium economy, and it has been the fastest growing cabin concept in the world. But it seems like it’s most popular across the Atlantic and Pacific, on airlines from North America, Europe, and select places in North and Southeast Asia.

At the same time, Etihad and Qatar Airways haven’t embraced premium economy, and Emirates only recently started rolling it out, years after other airlines. And then you have some airlines, like Turkish Airlines, which actually removed premium economy from their planes, as the economics weren’t working for them.

While I see merit to the value of premium economy, on the flights I’ve taken, I’ve generally notice that premium economy is almost always emptier than business class. On some flights business class will be full, while premium economy may only have a few people in it.

A majority of corporate travel contracts either allow travel in economy or business class, but most companies haven’t updated policies to allow for premium economy. So it’s heavily focused on leisure travelers who value a better experience, but aren’t necessarily willing to (or able to) splurge on business class. Admittedly that’s an increasingly large market, given the amount of premium leisure demand there is.

Bottom line

Korean Air will be introducing a premium economy cabin as of late 2025, with the product expected to debut on reconfigured 777-300ERs. Oddly, these planes will have first class removed at the same time that premium economy is installed, and then they’ll also get a new business class product. We should learn more details of exactly what to expect in the coming months…

What do you make of Korean Air introducing premium economy?