Korean Air's first superjumbo arrives in South Korea

SEOUL: South Korea's main flag carrier Korean Air welcomed the arrival of its first Airbus A380 on Thursday and said it plans to begin flights later this month.

The plane landed at Incheon International Airport after successful final flight and ground tests in the French city of Toulouse.

The airline said an A380 service between Incheon and Tokyo's Narita would start on June 17, with the plane departing for Hong Kong once it returns from Narita.

The service will be expanded to Bangkok in July once a second aircraft arrives. A third A380 will launch a service to New York from August, and the fourth will fly to Los Angeles in October.

Korean Air has ordered a total of ten A380s, with the first five to be delivered by the end of 2011 and the remainder by 2014.

The A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, made its debut with Singapore Airlines in 2007 and there are so far 48 are in service with six airlines.

Korean Air said its A380 features 12 luxurious first-class seats and 301 economy-class seats on the main lower deck, plus 94 business-class lie-flat seats on the upper deck.

It has a duty-free area offering in-flight shopping and a bar and lounge.

Korean Air, with a fleet of 135 aircraft, operates almost 400 flights per day to 112 cities in 39 countries.

South Korea's second biggest carrier Asiana Airlines announced in January that it would buy six A380s for routes to Europe and the United States.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011