Korean Air to debut premium economy next month
The new 40-seat cabin will debut across 11 retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with operations on medium-haul routes set to begin in mid-September.
The project is a 300 billion won ($216 million) company-wide initiative that began in 2018 but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the flag carrier. It is aimed not only at introducing a new cabin class but also at updating interiors across all travel classes.
'We will do our utmost to ensure that as many travelers as possible can experience the enhanced comfort of the newly reimagined Boeing 777-300ER and our new Premium Class product,' a Korean Air official said. 'We also plan to continue offering tailored services to meet the evolving needs of our passengers.'
Each Premium Class cabin includes 40 seats arranged in a 2-4-2 seat configuration, offering seats around 1.5 times wider than those in economy. Fares are around 110 percent higher than those of standard economy.
The class also features upgraded headrests and side-mounted privacy shields designed to provide a more comfortable and private in-flight experience.
Korean Air stated that Premium Class passengers will enjoy many of the same benefits offered in the 777-300ER's business-tier cabin, Prestige Class, including enhanced in-flight entertainment with high-resolution screens, elevated meal and beverage service and access to premium ground services.
Alongside the launch of Premium Class, the full-scale interior renovation introduces a new 1-2-1 configuration in Prestige Class, while economy class has been outfitted with a 3-4-3 layout. In-flight Wi-Fi will be available across all cabin classes.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
![[Adrian Wooldridge] Britain faces a long, hot and nervous summer](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwimg.heraldcorp.com%2Fnews%2Fcms%2F2025%2F08%2F05%2Fnews-p.v1.20250805.3d83480d767348c5a942480e6b321c0c_T1.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[Adrian Wooldridge] Britain faces a long, hot and nervous summer](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
[Adrian Wooldridge] Britain faces a long, hot and nervous summer
There is an ominous sense in the air in Britain -- a sense that the country is headed toward the rocks and that the captain has no idea how to steer the ship. This feeling is vague, but vague feelings can sometimes tell us more about the future than the hardest economic statistics. The two biggest rocks on the horizon are labeled "debt crisis" and "civil unrest." Blood-curdling warnings from the right are par for the course. Andrew Neil warns in the Daily Mail that 'broke Britain is on the edge of financial disaster … I'm scared for what's to come.' But equally dire warnings are coming from the left -- and even from the very heart of government. Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, notes that 'our finances are precarious … this could unravel very quickly.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has told her boss that Britain could face a repeat of last year's summer riots unless 'the government shows it can address people's concerns.' Seven in 10 Britons think that it's likely the country will experience race riots in the future, according to a poll for The Economist. Why are the British in such a state of angst? And, more importantly, are they right to be so worried? The country's economic problems stem from a combination of rising debt and dismal growth. The Office for Budget Responsibility recently warned of Britain's 'relatively vulnerable' position, with the sixth-highest debt among 36 advanced economies, the fifth-highest deficit and the third-highest borrowing costs. The government recorded the second-highest June borrowing figure since records began in 1993 (and that was only exceeded by June 2020, when COVID-19 was raging). Starmer's Labour looks more like a divided minority government on its last legs than a one-year-old government with a huge majority. It failed to pass a modest package of welfare reforms that would raise 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) from means-testing winter fuel payments and 5 billion pounds from cutting health and disability benefits, when public spending stands at 1.3 trillion pounds a year. The government's promise that it will grow its way out of its fiscal hole has evaporated, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves instead digging deeper by increasing taxes on labor and driving away wealthy people (particularly non-doms) who pay a disproportionate share of taxes. The last fortnight has seen a couple of tense street protests -- in Epping and Canary Wharf. In both cases, locals protested the government's decision to take over local hotels and fill them with young male asylum seekers, chanting 'send them home' and 'save our kids.' The protests quickly gained national resonance: Organized agitators from both the left and the right came in from across the country, and the internet lit up with furious posts. A bipartisan report by Sajid Javid, a former Conservative home secretary, and John Cruddas, a Labour grandee, published by the think tank British Future, makes for sobering reading: The authors warn that Britain is sitting on a 'powder keg' of social tensions that could easily ignite again. The social bonds that have traditionally held society together have been fraying for decades, they say, but the tensions have been significantly increased by rapid immigration and poor assimilation. I think it is still more likely than not that Britain will muddle through without either a debt crisis or a major series of riots, let alone a civil war, as one academic, David Betz, a professor of war studies at King's College, London, has predicted. Reeves has the option of breaking her electoral promise and raising general taxation. The government is, finally, giving the impression that it is taking the small boats crisis seriously by targeting the international gangs that profit from people smuggling and cracking down on the food delivery services that profit from illegal labor. What we are probably in for instead is prolonged pain rather than sudden crisis. But a major shock cannot be ruled out. Britain's credit with the global markets is not what it was since the Liz Truss fiasco. And many people's trust in the establishment has been weakened by that establishment's failure to control the pace of immigration or manage the social consequences. Britain's politics is rapidly fragmenting along both ethnic and ideological lines. Jeremy Corbyn has recently founded a new left-wing party with former Labour MP Zarah Sultana that is likely to draw votes not just from the far left but also from those who are furious about Starmer's stance on Israel. And Nigel Farage, whose Reform Party has been first in the polls for months, has warned that 'civil disobedience on a vast scale' will break out unless migrants stop arriving in the UK in small boats. Britain faces not just a long, hot summer, but also a nervous one.
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
Student startup boom slows across South Korea, but top universities see sharp rise
Student-led startups are losing momentum across most of South Korea for the first time in three years, but at a handful of top universities, entrepreneurship is quietly accelerating. New data released Monday by the Korea Council for University Education and university startup support centers showed that 1,860 startups were founded by university students nationwide in 2024, falling 7 percent from the previous year's 2,000. The number of student entrepreneurs also declined, down 6.6 percent year-on-year from 2,137 to 1,997. This marks the first nationwide decline since 2021, when campus activity was still restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The slowdown follows two years of rapid growth in student entrepreneurship; from 2022 to 2023, it surged by more than 23 percent. The drop is thought to be largely due to a tougher investment climate, a slowing global economy and a significant pullback in government support programs. Two of South Korea's most prominent early-stage funding initiatives have seen sharp reductions. The "Pre-Startup Package" funded 1,530 companies in 2021, but only 930 in 2023, a 39.2 percent cut. Similarly, the "Early Startup Package" dropped from 900 companies to 590 over the same period, a 34.4 percent decrease. These programs are a primary funding source for student entrepreneurs who lack access to private venture capital. According to Lee Ki-dae, head of the Seoul-based Startup Alliance Center, reliance on public support creates a delayed but significant impact. 'Most student startups are not backed by private VC investment but by public or university support, so they tend to react to market changes with a time lag,' he said. Despite this cooling trend nationwide, four universities are bucking the pattern. In 2024, Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University and KAIST collectively produced 205 student entrepreneurs, a 31.4 percent increase from 156 in 2023. KAIST alone saw a 53.8 percent jump, followed by Korea University at 50 percent, Seoul National at 44.1 percent and Yonsei at 11.3 percent. Together, these four institutions now account for over 10 percent of all student entrepreneurs in the country, up from 7.8 percent just two years ago. 'At schools like KAIST or Seoul National, you have stronger labs, better access to funding, and a long history of research in advanced fields like AI, semiconductors and robotics,' Lee said. 'So when deep tech becomes the trend, it's natural that students at those universities are in a better position to start companies. They're surrounded by the right people, equipment and support systems from day one.'
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
Korean Air to debut premium economy next month
Korean Air, the country's flag carrier, announced Tuesday the introduction of a new cabin tier -- Premium Class -- positioned between business and economy class, as part of a fleet-wide cabin interior upgrade to modernize its aircraft and improve the passenger experience. The new 40-seat cabin will debut across 11 retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with operations on medium-haul routes set to begin in mid-September. The project is a 300 billion won ($216 million) company-wide initiative that began in 2018 but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the flag carrier. It is aimed not only at introducing a new cabin class but also at updating interiors across all travel classes. 'We will do our utmost to ensure that as many travelers as possible can experience the enhanced comfort of the newly reimagined Boeing 777-300ER and our new Premium Class product,' a Korean Air official said. 'We also plan to continue offering tailored services to meet the evolving needs of our passengers.' Each Premium Class cabin includes 40 seats arranged in a 2-4-2 seat configuration, offering seats around 1.5 times wider than those in economy. Fares are around 110 percent higher than those of standard economy. The class also features upgraded headrests and side-mounted privacy shields designed to provide a more comfortable and private in-flight experience. Korean Air stated that Premium Class passengers will enjoy many of the same benefits offered in the 777-300ER's business-tier cabin, Prestige Class, including enhanced in-flight entertainment with high-resolution screens, elevated meal and beverage service and access to premium ground services. Alongside the launch of Premium Class, the full-scale interior renovation introduces a new 1-2-1 configuration in Prestige Class, while economy class has been outfitted with a 3-4-3 layout. In-flight Wi-Fi will be available across all cabin classes.
