Korean Air and Boeing have just announced a deal for over 100 new aircraft, described as the biggest Boeing wide body order ever from an Asian carrier. Let’s take a look at the details…
In this post:
Korean Air orders 103 Boeing aircraft, from 737s to 777s
United States President Donald Trump and South Korea President Lee Jae Myung met yesterday, to discuss trade, among other things. As part of this, Korean Air announced plans to order up to 103 Boeing jets, including 20 Boeing 777-9s, 25 Boeing 787-10s, 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10s, and eight Boeing 777-8 Freighters.
This is of course a lot of aircraft we’re talking about, though there are a couple of caveats:
- This isn’t a firm order, but instead, it’s an “intent to purchase” these aircraft; all too often, those are part of some flashy headline, but don’t materialize as planned
- This isn’t an entirely new order, as some of these planes are conversions of existing orders; for example, the 737 MAX 10 order partly consists of conversions of 737 MAX 8 orders
This is Korean Air’s second major Boeing order within the past year or so, as the airline also recently placed a firm order for 20 Boeing 777-9s and 20 Boeing 787-10s. This order is intended for Korean Air to modernize its fleet and support growth, as it fully integrates operations with Asiana over the coming years.
Here’s how Korean Air CEO Walter Cho describes this:
“This agreement with our long-standing partners, Boeing and GE, marks a pivotal moment for Korean Air. Acquiring these next-generation aircraft is the core of our fleet modernization strategy, delivering significant gains in fuel efficiency and enhancing the passenger experience across our global network. This investment is also a critical enabler for our future as a merged airline with Asiana, to ensure that our combined carrier is one of the most competitive airlines in the industry.”
What this order means for Korean Air’s overall fleet plans
Korean Air sure has some major fleet modernization plans, at this point. Let’s talk about each aircraft type that’s part of this order (at least for the passenger fleet).
With this order for 20 Boeing 777-9s, Korean Air’s order for this aircraft is now up to 40 jets. That’s pretty substantial — it makes Korean Air the third largest customer for the aircraft, after Emirates and Qatar Airways. It also sounds like this will eventually become the carrier’s flagship aircraft, replacing Airbus A380s and Boeing 747-8s. However, interestingly, Korean Air also has 27 Airbus A350-1000s on order, which will have fairly similar capabilities.
Korean Air is also increasingly going all-in on the Boeing 787-10, as the airline now has 65 of these planes on order. The jet has great unit costs, and as we’ve seen the aircraft’s range improved over time, its ability to be a reliable and versatile option across the Pacific has also improved.
The Boeing 737 MAX 10 is also a plane with great unit costs. The huge fleet of those aircraft will (eventually) complement 10 Airbus A220-300s, 56 Airbus A321neos, and 18 Boeing 737 MAX 8s. Korean Air is certainly putting a big emphasis on higher capacity narrow body jets.
What stands out to me most is the pure amount of fleet modernization and growth we’re going to see at Korean Air. The legacy Korean Air fleet currently consists of around 130 aircraft, and the legacy Asiana fleet currently consists of around 70 aircraft. The airline group now has roughly 260 planes on order.
When you consider that many existing planes are “latest generation,” the amount of growth that Korean Air is planning is kind of wild.
Bottom line
Korean Air has just announced its intent to purchase 103 Boeing aircraft, including the 777-9, 787-10, and 737 MAX 10. For the 777-9 and 787-10, these represent incremental orders, while this is the first order for the 737 MAX 10 (though the airline already flies 737 MAX 8s).
Korean Air has a huge amount of fleet modernization planned, and I’m curious to see how it all plays out…
What do you make of Korean Air’s latest Boeing aircraft order?
KE + OZ currently have just over 200 aircraft and 260 on order including 140 WBs: 65 78Xs, 27 A35X, 40 779s, 8 77Fs while DL only has 28 WBs on order. Quite a bit of an imbalance and growing.
ICN is an excellent #2 hub for Asia. It’s only 20% smaller than HND and almost nearly as well positioned geographically with plenty of room to grow.
Weird comparison to make about size of HND vs ICN. HND is mostly domestic traffic still. ICN is majority international, their size difference needs to be head to head.
Also, hub size matters too, HND is a dual hub of ANA and JAL, ICN is primarily KE now after the merger.
Main difference being that Japan has literally dozens of secondary and tertiary cities that foreign travelers want to visit. The beauty of HND is that travelers can connect between Europe/North America and the rest of Asia, or to elsewhere in Japan. If you want to do the latter in Korea, you'd need to take a bus to GMP.
All of Korea airlines orders always start as Intents and then are firmed up usually within the following 6 months
as part of his tariff plan, Trump is Boeing's #1 salesman.
and, yes, ICN is expanding on its position as the best hub in Asia. Larger terminals, more runways, and flights to places that other hubs don't serve.
ICN is a terrible hub. Terminal 1 is a dinosaur, and Terminal 2 seems years older than it is. Transit is cumbersome; the airport is inconvenient to central Seoul. Never mind the fact that using it necessitates flying Skyteam (the weakest alliance) over the Pacific.
Asia's best hubs are Haneda, Taoyuan and Hong Kong, in that order.
Asian tourists feel increasingly welcome in the United States, and Asian cargo shipped on KAL is bound to increase with tariff barriers becoming insignificant. The future is certainly bright, and those Boeing planes will no doubt turn into firm orders.
Will the 737 Max 10s have the newer 2-2 lieflat business class in their A321neos? Or will it be standard recliner like their Max 8s?
@ yoloswag420 -- It hasn't been announced one way or another, so we'll have to wait and see.
This is not an order but a PR stunt to butter up you know who. Cane right alongside the other S. Korean stunt of asking you know who to make peace in the peninsula (because, you know, the first meeting with N Korea yielded so much) and build a golf course there.
In other words, it has no value at this point and is definitely not newsworthy (and part of the announcement is tied to...
This is not an order but a PR stunt to butter up you know who. Cane right alongside the other S. Korean stunt of asking you know who to make peace in the peninsula (because, you know, the first meeting with N Korea yielded so much) and build a golf course there.
In other words, it has no value at this point and is definitely not newsworthy (and part of the announcement is tied to the fact that there are some files that need to be covered up and it's an attempt to get the media to stop taking about them).
Ben writes …. “Korean Air has a huge amount of fleet modernization planned, and I’m curious to see how it all plays out” …. Anyone on the right side of the pond might well think …. “Dream on Korean Air, will Boeing ever deliver any of the order this century?” …. :-)
Here and only here is the first time I read that it’s still a plan. Thanks, Ben. Much love t you & yours
Everyone else too focused on the numbers (in excess of $50 billion with GE engines at list prices) to take a step back
The new livery looks so cheap. Makes sense that they are a partner of Delta.
This Delta obsession needs to stop.
Does Delta decide the KE livery? I don't think so.