Asiana will soon begin commercial service with their A380s, which they’ll be taking delivery of shortly. While they’ll first be flying them regionally as “training” flights, they will launch longhaul A380 service to Los Angeles as of August 15, 2014.
While we’ve already had seatmap pictures and an idea of what the cabins will look like, Asiana has now set up a website dedicated to the Asiana A380. Or as they call it — since they seem to feel the need to come up with a ridiculous special name for everything — ASIANA380 Special Edition.
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana will be putting their signature First Suite on the A380, which is the product they also have on some of their 777-200 aircraft. There will be a total of 12 suites. It looks like a solid product, whether you want to play chess with a colleague, have your picture taken with an omelet, or do a horrible photoshop job of a flight attendant presenting you pajamas. 😉
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana A380 First Suite
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana’s business class will be called Business Smartium, which is only slightly less ridiculous than the previous name, Quadra Smartium. This is a fully flat business class product, somewhat similar to Alitalia’s Magnifica Class, which I flew earlier this year.
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana A380 Business Smartium
Asiana A380 public areas
As I explained in a previous post, with 495 seats, Asiana has one of the denser A380 configurations. Their Korean counterpart, Korean Air, has 88 fewer seats, but has both an onboard bar and lounge, as well as a duty free gallery.
Asiana’s features seem to be limited to a small lounge at the top of the upper deck, which is otherwise wasted space (unless you’re Etihad, in which case you put a bedroom up there).
Asiana A380 upper deck lounge
Meanwhile one of the first class bathrooms will be fairly large, though won’t feature a shower or anything special like Emirates.
Asiana A380 first class lavatory
Bottom line
Asiana’s first and business class on the A380 will be nice, though hardly cutting edge. But what really sets Asiana apart is their food and service, which in my opinion is among the best in the sky. I look forward to sampling the A380 the first week that it operates to Los Angeles!
Steak in Asiana first class
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