Korean Air to offer duty free shop onboard its A380s
Korean Air will become the first airline to offer a flying duty free shop when its first of ten A380s enters service on 10-Jun-2011. The outlet has been designed and manufactured for Korean Air by AIM Aviation and will replace 13 seats on the A380. Korean's A380s will feature a 407-seat layout with 12 first class seats, 94 in Prestige business class and 301 in economy class.
Lancome has purchased the first advertising spot inside the shop, which will promote "new, existing and exclusive products" from the airline's duty-free range. It will be complemented by the continuation of the regular cart service, according Heather Cho, from Korean Air's Catering & Inflight Sales Business Division, speaking with Australian Business Traveller.
First class passengers will have the opportunity to browse the shop and make purchases, followed by business class and other passengers.
The Korean flag carrier is hopeful the new A380 offering will turn around a slump in its inflight duty free sales. Korean Air has set a target of USD200 million in inflight duty free sales revenue for 2011 - in line with USD201 million generated in 2010. Deputy General Manager Inflight Sales, JY Jung, told Trend, "The indiscriminate promotions of airport duty free shops have seriously affected our inflight sales. Monthly revenue has gradually decreased since Jun-2010 and the slump is continuing."
Korean Air's shares fell 0.9% yesterday.
Selected Asia Pacific airlines daily share price movements (% change): 5-Apr-2011
