The A350 is the pillar of Airbus’ new generation aircraft. The A330neo has won over more orders over the past year, however, the A350 remains most airline’s favorite for performance capacity. Korean Air is one of these clients with both the A350-900 and A350-1000 on order, and now the A350F also. Not all that glitters is gold though, with the Korean Air A350F order only satisfying Airbus partially. Here’s why.
Book your next flight using my link to support my work and the website.
Aviation News You Want To Know In Your Inbox
Get the most important aviation news in your inbox once a week.
"*" indicates required fields
Korean Air Converts Part of Its A350-1000 Order into Freighters
Korean Air is a major force in the East Asian aviation landscape. It operates a sizable passenger operations connecting all continents except South America. However, its cargo operations are just as impressive if not more.
South Korea is a big goods manufacturing country which has no road connections to its commercial partners. Therefore it relies exclusively on ship and air freight transport. While some goods can travel by sea, others need to be delivered rapidly making air transport the only viable export and import option.
That’s were Korean Air comes into play with its cargo division. The airline operates a fleet of the largest cargo planes it could get its hands on. That fleet will one day also include the Airbus A350F.
Korean Air didn’t place a new order per se. It instead converted part of its existing Airbus A350-1000 order into A350F.
Specifically out of the 27 Airbus A350-1000s on order Korean Air has decided to transform 7 into A350F orders.
A Win for the A350F, But a Step Back for the A350-1000
Airbus obviously presented the news as a major win for the A350F program which is still undergoing development. However that sugarcoats the side of the story. Which is that the A350-1000 lost 7 orders for the A350F to gain 7.
The A350-1000 has had its own share of difficulties in securing orders and it certainly hurts to see some of them exit the backlog, even if they are moving to another project in need of global affirmation.
Some airlines are still sitting on the fence when it comes to replacing its largest planes. There’s a feeling that some might be waiting to see if the Boeing 777X can actually deliver what it promises. At this moment the 777X remains the single biggest threat for the A350-1000 and the A350F.
The A350F Promises Strong Efficiency
Nonetheless the Airbus A350F promises to be a phenomenal cargo workhorse for airlines such as Korean Air.
The aircraft is one of few freighter options constructed utilizing composite materials for over 70% of its structure. That reduces the airliner’s takeoff weight by 46 tonnes which can be used for payload instead.
Additionally this is the sole cargo aircraft to currently hold ICAO’s 2027 CO2‚‚ emissions standards. That is thanks to its reduced carbon emissions and promised savings in fuel burn of up to 40% over comparable prior generation aircraft.
Korean Air’s Current Airbus Orderbook
The overall number of planes on order for Korean Air at Airbus doesn’t change with this reshuffling. However the current order breakdown does change with Korean Air’s Airbus order book now featuring:
- 20 – A350-1000 (passenger)
- 7 – A350F (freighter)
- 6 – A350-900 (two delivered)
- 39 – A321neo (17 delivered)
With the 2025 Dubai Air Show nearing the question is, will the A350-1000 and A350F win over more needed clients?
Aviation News You Want To Know In Your Inbox
Get the most important aviation news in your inbox once a week.
"*" indicates required fields