Korean Air A380 returns to US with pair of flights to Atlanta

Nick Benson - JetTip.net

HL7614 is now the the only active member of Korean Air's A380 fleet; seen here on arrival at LAX in this file photo from 2019.

Korean Air has a fleet of ten A380 super-heavies, which before COVID-19, operated between their hub at Seoul to London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Sydney, and Taipei; by March 8 they were no longer flying.

Starting at the end of September, a single A380 rejoined the active fleet, and began operating a weekly flight between Seoul Incheon (ICN) and Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN) on Wednesdays.

On October 29, JetTip's smart flight alert subscribers in Atlanta were tipped off to an incoming A380 - tail HL7614 was inbound, on the first flight of a Korean A380 outside of Asia since March. On Friday, October 30, it arrived at ATL at 12:30 AM on flight 8033, and departed at 3:30 AM as flight 8034, and did the same again early on Sunday, November 1.

A spokesperson from Korean Air confirmed the flights to Atlanta were for cargo, and that they'll continue to operate as long as market conditions allow.

Timing of the A380 flights were suspiciously close to the retirement of Delta's 777s, but that appears to be coincidental. A spokesperson from Delta declined to comment; Korean said the flights to ATL were unrelated to Delta's 777 retirement. Looking at Delta's fleet activity, the 777s haven't been regular visitors at ICN for some time.

Another interesting flight to keep tabs on is Jin Air's 777-200ER, which appears to be on a weekly schedule between Seoul and Los Angeles, flight 761 arriving at LAX on Saturday and departing on Sunday as flight 762. Jin Air is the LCC sibling of Korean Air.

Nick Benson

Nick lives in Burnsville, Minnesota with his wife and three children. He grooves on railroad and aviation photography, politics, geography, weather, and LEGO. He started JetTip's smart flight alert service in 2017, and is now a full-time avgeek. He can frequently be found atop a step ladder at MSP's Aircraft Viewing Area.