Korean Air Forced to Shelve $215 Million Refit Of Boeing 777s Over Premium Economy Seating

It’s been more than 33 years since the very first Premium Economy seat was introduced, and while there’s debate over whether it was Taiwan’s EVA Air or Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic that was first to launch Premium Economy, there’s one thing for sure, and it’s that 1992 was a very long time ago.

While some airlines like British Airways and Japan Airlines were early adopters of Premium Economy, other major international carriers dismissed the product, concluding it was either a gimmick or would somehow cannibalize their lucrative Business Class cabin.

Emirates didn’t admit defeat until 2021, with plans to install Premium Economy on a small number of planes before senior executives realised they had been wrong all along and that the vast majority of people who booked Premium Economy were trading up from the cheap seats at the back of the plane.

Korean Air also planned to join the late adopters of Premium Economy with initial plans to install 40 of the more spacious seats on each of its 11 Boeing 777-300 aircraft as part of a massive $215 million refit program.

Since announcing the project last month, the Seoul-based carrier has refitted just one of its Boeing 777-300s, and it looks like that is where the program is coming to an abrupt halt.

As reported by German aviation publication Aero Telegraph, Korean Air has run into trouble with the refit program, not only from regulators but also from passengers who have not taken lightly to the carrier’s plans to densify the Economy cabin to make way for more expensive Premium Economy seats.

Let’s break this down:

Regulatory concerns

The driving force behind this sudden change of heart appears to be Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, which wrote to Korean Air with a warning that the Premium Economy cabin could violate the terms of the airline’s takeover of fellow South Korean airline Asiana.

The merger was finally cleared late last year, but only after Korean Air agreed to various concessions from regulatory bodies around the world. In South Korea, these concessions included a promise not to raise ticket prices on 40 key routes.

But given that the larger and more comfortable Premium Economy seats are a lot more expensive to book, the Fair Trade Commission believes this amounts to a price increase on protected routes.

Passenger perception

Although the Premium Economy cabin was going to take up part of the cabin where regular Economy seats used to occupy, Korean Air didn’t plan to lose any Economy seats because it was going to densify the cabin.

When Boeing designed the 777, it intended for the Economy cabin to be configured in a 3-3-3 layout, but over the years, more and more airlines have introduced a 3-4-3 configuration by narrowing the aisle and shaving off some padding on the seats.

Just like its late adoption of Premium Economy, Korean Air had also been a holdout on densifying the Economy cabin on its Boeing 777s to a 3-4-3 layout. That, however, was all about to change with the multi-million-dollar retrofit program.

Passengers and lawmakers have been less than pleased about this decision and haven’t been shy about making their feelings known.

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The upshot of all this controversy is that Korean Air is shelving its grand refit plans for its Boeing 777-300 fleet, although the one aircraft that has already been retrofitted will still continue to fly in its new configuration, although only on one route between Seoul and Singapore.

As for the rest of Korean Air’s Boeing 777-300s, the airline is yet to decide how to move forward.