One more time: Asiana’s A380 Sydney season before brand folds

By Andrew Curran.

Sydney is set to host a final round of Asiana A380-800 flights later this year before the brand is folded into its parent entity, Korean Air. Updated schedules have the aircraft returning to Sydney on October 19, and at this stage, it will continue operating daily Seoul – Sydney round trips throughout the upcoming Southern Hemisphere summer season.

Korean Air’s buy-out of Asiana, initially planned as a relatively straightforward business transaction, has morphed into a six-year melodrama that, tentatively, will conclude in mid-December when Asiana becomes fully integrated into Korean Air and the brand officially disappears.

At present, both Asiana and Korean Air-branded aircraft fly between Seoul (ICN) and Sydney (SYD). Over the upcoming Southern Hemisphere 2026/27 summer, Korean Air will operate daily B787-10 round trips on the route, while Asiana will deploy its A380-800, replacing the B777-200LR it operates to Sydney during the Australian winter.

There are currently some scheduling overlaps. For example, both airlines are presently operating daytime flights to Sydney with near-identical arrival and departure times. But current schedule data shows this changing in early 2027. What is now the Asiana service will begin flying to Sydney overnight and returning to Seoul during daylight hours, while the Korean Air service will fly to Sydney during daylight hours and return to Seoul overnight.

Unclear future for Asiana's A380s

Schedules can and do change, but current filings show the Asiana A380-800 flying to Sydney until the end of March. Korean Air is slowly integrating Asiana’s fleet into its own, but Korean Air hasn’t said whether it will keep and repaint Asiana’s A380s. Korean Air has six A380-800s of its own but, like most carriers, finds the economics of operating the four-engine jets challenging.

But the likely outcome is that the upcoming Southern Hemisphere summer will be the last time Asiana-branded A380s operate to Sydney, or indeed any other airport. Asiana has historically sent one of its A380s to Sydney over the summer, and Korean Air may continue doing so, electing to repaint the aircraft type in Korean Air colours if it decides to retain them. Alternatively, Korean Air may decide to retire and dispose of the aircraft, leaving the Sydney route to be served by other types of wide-body jets.

Asiana currently uses its A380-800s on some or all services to Tokyo Narita (NRT), Bangkok (BKK), Los Angeles (LAX) and New York (JFK). Korean Air uses the aircraft on some or all services to Taipei (TPE), Tokyo Narita, Los Angeles and New York. If Korean Air decides to continue operating Asiana’s A380s, its A380-800 fleet will double to 12 aircraft.

Sydney Airport A380 traffic declines

Meanwhile, with Asiana-branded A380 flights to Sydney and elsewhere set to cease, Sydney’s status as an A380 hub will further decline, with the airport hosting only Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Emirates A380 flights beyond early 2027.

Late last month, Qantas said it would begin retiring its A380-800s from 2028 onwards, gradually replacing them with new wide-body aircraft such as the A350-1000.

Before the pandemic, the airport was a major A380 hub. In addition to the existing operators, China Southern, Malaysia Airlines, Korean Air, Qatar Airways and Etihad all flew the A380 to Sydney at one point, sometimes more than once a day.

Photo: Asiana Airlines.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com