Korean Air will sell five B747-8i, which used to be called the

Korean Air will sell five B747-8i, which used to be called the “Queen of the Sky,” to a U.S. airline. It seems to be speeding up the unnecessary cleanup of the fleet ahead of the merger with Asiana Airlines while organizing the super-large aircraft, which has fallen into a “money hippo,” and increasing the efficiency of the operation of the fleet.

According to the aviation industry on the 9th, Korean Air held a board meeting on the 8th and decided to sell five B747-8i units to the U.S. aerospace company “Sierra Nevada Corporation.” Korean Air recently announced that it decided to dispose of five aircraft for 918.3 billion won, but did not disclose the specific model due to contractual problems.

According to Korean Air, the company has a total of nine B747-8i as of the end of the first quarter of this year. If five of them are disposed of sequentially by 2025 according to the contract, only four will be left. Since Korean Air introduced the B747-8i model in 2015, it has been deployed on long-distance routes such as Incheon, New York, and Europe.

The B747-8i, manufactured by Boeing of the United States, is the last passenger aircraft in the B747 series. It is a long-distance device that can fly for up to 14 hours in a row and can travel up to about 15,000 kilometers without intermediate refueling. It is a four-engine four-wheeler that can achieve the fastest Mach 0.86 speed of any large airliner.

Thanks to its fast and stable strength, it was selected as a presidential aircraft and is currently carrying out a “Code One” mission. In 2021, the Moon Jae In government signed a lease contract with Korean Air for 300 billion won for the B747-8i model for five years until 2026.

However, the 747-8i has recently become less popular in the aircraft market due to its disadvantages of poor fuel efficiency and difficulty in responding to the global carbon emission enhancement trend. An official from Korean Air said, “The production of the 747 series in Boeing has also been suspended since 2022, resulting in a decrease in parts production, which is increasing operating costs.” It is because of this cost burden that Korean Air has put it on the sale list less than 10 years after introducing related information.

사진 확대

In addition to the 747-8i, Korean Air also plans to part-out three Airbus’s super-large aircraft A380s, which were called “Hotels in the Sky.” As the maintenance burden increased and the sale was not smooth, the company chose to break down the equipment and filter out parts.

Instead, Korean Air plans to introduce a new fuel-efficient and eco-friendly aircraft in the mid to long term. Korean Air signed an 18 trillion won contract with Airbus in March this year to purchase 33 high-tech mid- to large-sized aircraft A350s. The A350 is known to not only improve fuel efficiency by 25% compared to its peers, but also reduce carbon emissions by 25%.

Korean Air plans to introduce 60 new models sequentially from the second quarter of 2024 to 2032, including the A350.

Meanwhile, Korean Air recorded 3.8225 trillion won in sales and 436.1 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter of this year. This is an increase of 19.6% and 5.1%, respectively, from the first quarter of last year. Net profit fell 2.9 percent from a year ago to 345.2 billion won. Sales rose 20% year-on-year due to a rapid recovery in passenger transportation and solid cargo demand, while operating profit also rose 5% despite reasons such as increased oil costs, airport and freight costs, and rising labor costs due to wage increases. On the other hand, net profit fell 2.9 percent, reflecting gains and losses on foreign currency conversion due to the weak won.