South Korea’s Air Premia has plans to launch a second route to the United States, and this is an interesting one.
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Air Premia plans EWR flights as of May 2023
As of May 22, 2023, Air Premia intends to launch a 4x weekly flight between Seoul (ICN) and Newark (EWR). The new service will operate with the following schedule:
YP131 Seoul to Newark departing 9:05PM arriving 10:00PM
YP132 Newark to Seoul departing 12:30AM arriving 4:25AM (+1 day)
The 6,889-mile flight is blocked at 13hr55min to Newark and 14hr55min to Seoul. This will mark Air Premia’s second route to the United States, as the airline started flying between Seoul and Los Angeles as of October 2022.
Air Premia will be the only airline to fly between Seoul and Newark. However, historically both Korean Air and Asiana have flown between Seoul and New York. With Korean Air and Asiana merging, this will provide some competition to the combined airline.
What is Air Premia, anyway?
Air Premia is a new hybrid airline startup in South Korea that launched operations in August 2021. The airline is founded by the former president of Jeju Air, which is Korea’s largest low cost carrier. Air Premia plans on exclusively operating Boeing 787-9s, with a total of five on order — the airline already has three in its fleet, with a further two on order.
The airline currently operates from Seoul Incheon to Bangkok (BKK), Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), Los Angeles (LAX), Singapore (SIN), and Tokyo (NRT), for cargo and passenger flights. In the long run, the plan is for the airline to also fly to Australia and Europe.
The basics of Air Premia’s Boeing 787-9s
Air Premia isn’t a traditional low cost carrier. The carrier’s Boeing 787-9s are in a two cabin configuration, featuring a total of 309 seats:
- There are 56 premium economy seats, featuring 42″ of pitch
- There are 253 economy seats, featuring 35″ of pitch (this is virtually unheard of)
Air Premia even has Wi-Fi on its Boeing 787-9s, which is something that’s otherwise sorely lacking on Korean airlines.
Air Premia claims that economy tickets are priced at 80-90% of what Korean full service carriers charge in economy, while premium economy tickets are priced at 140% of what Korean full service carriers charge in economy.
Below is a video about Air Premia’s Boeing 787-9 cabins (which is odd, and for that matter they can’t even make the actor look like he finds the premium economy seat to be comfortable).
My take on Air Premia adding flights to Newark
We’re seeing an increasing number of transpacific non-full service airlines launch (I’d say low cost carriers, but Air Premia isn’t your traditional ultra low cost carrier). So far that expansion has exclusively been limited to the west coast of the United States and Hawaii.
As a matter of fact, when Air Premia launched, the company stated that planned destinations in North America included Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Vancouver. In that sense, Newark seems to be coming out of left field, and is an interesting addition, given the sheer length of the flight. Fortunately the Boeing 787 has great economics, though still, it can be hard to make money on ultra long haul flights without premium business demand.
Air Premia will only have very limited connecting traffic for this route, it will clearly be primarily about serving the market between Seoul and the New York area. Admittedly that’s a pretty substantial market, and if the pricing is attractive, I’m sure the airline will have no trouble filling seats. The question is whether the airline can do so profitably.
In fairness, we’ve seen a huge increase in transpacific fares in recent years, much more so than in other markets. That’s because Chinese airlines have so greatly scaled back their route networks, and haven’t been capacity dumping. With China now once again fully open, and Chinese airlines resuming more service, I’m curious how long that lasts.
Bottom line
South Korean carrier Air Premia has announced plans to launch Seoul to Newark flights as of May 2023. The airline will fly 4x weekly in the market, making this one of the longest routes in the world for a hybrid airline. I’m curious to see if the airline succeeds with this new service…
What do you make of Air Premia adding Newark flights?
More competition is good for customers. Air Premia seems to have a great economy product.
They're actually already making profit from their flights. Business class demand is very low from South Korea because Korean companies never let their employees travel in business class unless they're execs. Even if it's Samsung or Hyundai, they never do.
Also, Koreans simply don't want to spend much on flights. They rather spend more on hotels and food, not on any sort of transportation. The only korean carrier that makes meaningful amount of profit...
They're actually already making profit from their flights. Business class demand is very low from South Korea because Korean companies never let their employees travel in business class unless they're execs. Even if it's Samsung or Hyundai, they never do.
Also, Koreans simply don't want to spend much on flights. They rather spend more on hotels and food, not on any sort of transportation. The only korean carrier that makes meaningful amount of profit from business class is Korean Air only, because they dominate almost all the business travel demand(of execs and government officials) out of Korea. Even Asiana can't make much profit from business class.
That's why Air Premia decided to operate without business class. Only Korean Air can make profitable business class, not others. Instead, Air Premia wants to steal economy class customers from Korean Air, and it's working very well. Air Premia is cheaper and even has wider seats than Korean Air, and they also have in-flight wi-fi that Korean Air doesn't.
Air Premia is more like a FSC without lie-flat business class. They offer free meals, beverages(alcoholic drinks are paid in economy class though) and free checked luggage.
How do they make profit? Because they have more seats than Korean Air. Korean Air has 24J 245Y on B789 whereas Air Premia has 56PY 253Y.
And Air Premia is filling over 90% of the seats on LAX route without any award seat. They have "revenue flights" only, no award.
They could have put over 330 seats on B789 if the seat pitch were 30"-31", however, they wouldn't have been able to make that high load factor with uncomfortable seats. They made it 35" to steal economy passengers from Korean Air which offers 33"-34" pitch. And the saved weight can be allocated to the cargo.
Why don't they fly Business Class on other airlines?
I've notice KE filling up business class seats too. They seem to fully load their A380 lately.
There are three reasons:
1. Network
Not any airline can beat Korean Air's route network out of Korea.
2. Reliability
Korean Air is one of the most reliable airlines in the world. Even if a flight's empty, they don't cancel it as long as there's any passenger booked. Reliability comes first when Koreans book their business travel. Korean Air's the best option to guarantee their travel plans.
Korean Air doesn't have any...
There are three reasons:
1. Network
Not any airline can beat Korean Air's route network out of Korea.
2. Reliability
Korean Air is one of the most reliable airlines in the world. Even if a flight's empty, they don't cancel it as long as there's any passenger booked. Reliability comes first when Koreans book their business travel. Korean Air's the best option to guarantee their travel plans.
Korean Air doesn't have any fancy features, nor any inflight wi-fi, but business travelers fly them only for reliability.
Koreans never accept any uncertainty when it comes to business travel. Even if it's the airline's fault, the employee will be castigated by their employer when there's any disruption on his/her business travel.
3. FFP
A lot of Korean business travelers(mostly execs) are tied to Korean Air's Skypass program, so Korean Air is always the first option for them, and the second are Skyteam airlines such as Delta, Air France, etc. Also, even when they fly other Skyteam airlines, they prefer Korean Air codeshare so that they can get elite qualifying miles and that Korean Air can offer alternative flight options in case of flight disruptions.
Air France and Delta also makes meaningful amount of business class passengers to/from Korea, but non-Skyteam airlines can't. This is why British Airways terminated its service to Seoul. Even JAL has codeshare with Korean Air on its GMP-HND route to survive.
Star Alliance airlines could also survive in Korean market thanks to Asiana, but since it's gonna be merged to Korean Air, it's a matter of time
Oh and I forgot to mention this..
4. Flexibility
It's illegal to sell non-refundable/non-changeable flight ticket in Korea, and this "must-be-flexible" rule applies to Korean carriers only.
Therefore, all the tickets from Korean carriers are flexible albeit with some fees, and even the fees are set by the government, not by the airline.
It's very common for Korean companies to change their travel plans, so the flexibility of Korean carriers is a...
Oh and I forgot to mention this..
4. Flexibility
It's illegal to sell non-refundable/non-changeable flight ticket in Korea, and this "must-be-flexible" rule applies to Korean carriers only.
Therefore, all the tickets from Korean carriers are flexible albeit with some fees, and even the fees are set by the government, not by the airline.
It's very common for Korean companies to change their travel plans, so the flexibility of Korean carriers is a huge advantage for them. Not any non-Korean carrier can offer this level of flexibility at this price. Even the cheapest economy class ticket from any Korean carrier is flexible.
It costs a lot more to fly non-Korean carriers with this level of flexibility, and Korean Air offers all the aforementioned advantages as well.
Newark was a gaping hole in service from the US to Seoul. It was waiting for someone to start it and the chances are it was not going to be United.
There's a very large Korean population in Northern New Jersey. Air Premia sees a route that is ripe for the picking.
They are flying to EWR because there is a huge Korean population there that goes back and forth. And while I assume they use JFK because that's the only option, this would be better and closer for them.
35" legroom in Economy is more than some so-called Premium Economy seats I've seen promoted. Impressive!