{"id":75388,"date":"2026-08-19T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/75388\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:31:08","slug":"new-korean-air-melbourne-seoul-flights-from-december-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/75388\/","title":{"rendered":"New Korean Air Melbourne-Seoul Flights From December 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">Korean Air is planning a return to <a class=\"styles_link__AvqBa styles_link__TbDdn\" title=\"\" target=\"_self\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/flighthacks.com.au\/melbourne-airport-to-city\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Melbourne<\/a>, with new direct flights to Seoul, South Korea, launching later this year. The seasonal service will be operated by Korean Air&#8217;s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, three times weekly between 18 December 2026 and 14 March 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">The SkyTeam airline will take over the Melbourne-Seoul route currently served seasonally by Asiana Airlines, as the two carriers complete their merger. It&#8217;s the first time in 13 years that Korean Air has operated out of Melbourne, with the airline last flying the route back in 2013.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">Korean Air&#8217;s new Melbourne service will fly on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, as follows:<\/p>\n<p>KE409 departs Seoul at 8:00am, touching down in Melbourne at 8:30pm (10h 30m)KE410 departs Melbourne at 10:00pm, for an arrival in Seoul at 7:35am the following day (11h 35m)<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">The seasonal timing lines up with peak summer travel between Australia and South Korea, and complements Korean Air&#8217;s existing year-round services to Sydney and Brisbane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">Korean Air is stepping straight into the slot Asiana Airlines has run since December 2023, keeping the same three-weekly frequency. Asiana&#8217;s Melbourne service started out as a twice-weekly seasonal flight before growing to four times a week at its peak. The handover lines up with the wider Korean Air and Asiana merger, which formally completes on 17 December 2026, the day before Korean Air&#8217;s first Melbourne flight lands. Asiana as a brand is expected to be phased out entirely by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Korean Air\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"styles_image__p9jw2\" style=\"color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 1200 800'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/jpeg;base64,\/9j\/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj\/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj\/wAARCAANABQDASIAAhEBAxEB\/8QAGAAAAgMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQCAwX\/xAAjEAEAAQQBAwUBAAAAAAAAAAABAgADBBEGEiExBRYiUWGR\/8QAFQEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwL\/xAAcEQEAAQQDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAIEFVERIUH\/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA\/AHbfI+SZCyxbePIO7He9FXnrnKWG3HxyL2H9pe11RtrB6T6CiyShJYzl3d+aPL0+jCbJ56ZD3HycUXHNPjVFaNu5PpPkfwoqMuaiFibn\/9k='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/d43bf52dd486ad3f22679dbeceb2fa679122304c-1200x800.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">Melbourne Airport&#8217;s Chief of Aviation, Jim Parashos, called the return of Korean Air a strong outcome for Victorian travellers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">&#8220;We look forward to welcoming Korean Air back to Melbourne Airport and seeing this route continue to grow as part of the carrier&#8217;s long-haul strategy,&#8221; Parashos said. &#8220;South Korea is one of the world&#8217;s major economies, and a reliable direct connection between Melbourne and Seoul matters for Victorian exporters, for our tourism sector and for the Korean community here in Victoria.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__Pngqw styles_variant_body__cB6dZ styles_color_themeFgSubtle__D2fp_ styles_size_lg__VNUmq styles_spacing_top_md__1ZMa6 styles_spacing_bottom_md__tlIfq\">Onboard, Korean Air&#8217;s 787-9 swaps out Asiana&#8217;s A350-900 for a two-cabin layout of its own. Business class runs 24 Prestige Suites in a staggered 2-2-2 configuration, giving every seat direct aisle access without climbing over a neighbour. There&#8217;s no dedicated premium economy cabin, with the rest of the aircraft set up as Economy in a 3-3-3 layout across around 245 seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Korean Air is planning a return to Melbourne, with new direct flights to Seoul, South Korea, launching later&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-75388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-melbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}