Korean Air to launch its first A380 service in May 2011 By Geoffrey Thomas | January 5, 2011 1 SHARE EMAIL PRINT Korean Air will launch its first A380 service in May 2011 with the entire upper deck of the aircraft devoted to business class flyers. The configuration is designed to give business flyers "exclusivity like they're traveling in their own private jet," according to Senior VP-Passenger Business Division Walter Cho. Dubbed "prestige class," the upper deck will have 94 lie-flat sleepers with 74 in. seat pitch and "extra large" seat partitions that offer what Cho says is "normally the comfort and privacy reserved for first-class passengers on other airlines." The aircraft will have the lowest seat count of any A380 with only 407 seats: 12 first class, 94 business class and 301 economy class seats. Seat pitch in economy will be almost 36 in. KE has ordered 10 A380s with the first five to be delivered by the end of 2011, and an additional five by 2014. The airline will launch its A380s on shorthaul routes to Japan and East Asia in May, and then expand to KE's US and European routes in August 2011.