Korean Air’s NEW A350 has a BIG flaw. (Full review)

Korean Air’s NEW A350 has a BIG flaw. (Full review)

Welcome to Osaka where I’m heading across to Canai Island and the airport by Kzai Express train. I remember when this airport opened all the way back in 1994 and it was then considered an engineering marvel built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay. It’s still a modern feeling and spacious international airport. Note the aeraf foil shape of the roof, a nod to the profile of an aircraft’s wing. Korean’s check-in opens 3 hours before for passengers with bags to drop. And I’m soon through security and off to the satellite terminal. This little shunting locomotive on the transit was an unusual sight. I didn’t know these transit systems had shunters. Kzai airport served over 30 million passengers last year, making it Japan’s third busiest airport. It was built to complement the older Itami airport closer to Osaka, which is still open and serving 15 million passengers annually on domestic flights only. Something I had not realized before I booked this trip and something which is not really obvious if you come out to the satellite terminal here at Canai is the Osaka Canai to Solian air route is the fifth busiest international air route in the world about 5 million people flew this very route last year. So what with this being a very popular air corridor and Korean having five flights today four of which in fact are wide bodies. Korean actually have their own lounge here and I’m going to go check it out. The Korean lounge really isn’t much to write home about. It’s one long room, and there is nothing especially remarkable about this lounge. But it’s worth remembering the flights from here are frequent and short at under 2 hours a time. You can get a drink or something quite basic to eat. And as I was here a couple of hours before my flight was due to leave, I tested out a few of the snacks. Overall, the lounge is pleasant enough and has good Wi-Fi and is large enough to warrant its own bathrooms, but there’s really no point turning up early for this lounge. It’s hardly the pier at Hong Kong. Oh, it does have a rather lovely view of the apron, by the way. Now, that’s a big plus with any lounge. Today’s video sponsor is SY, an started. Here’s today’s aircraft. A brand new nearly factory fresh Airbus A350900 extra widebody powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent engines. It looks fantastic in its striking blue livery, which I’ve learned is in the process of being refreshed for a newer and I think less distinctive color scheme. The logo on the tail is a Korean Taiguk symbol. When I was a kid, I thought this was the Pepsi logo. Also coming up on the channel, a review on EVAS 787 just like this one. But for now, it’s time to board our A350. Hello. Yes. Thank you. Okay, here we go. A brand new A350. What a treat. Over to Soul today. While we’re here, if you’re Hello. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Korean’s Airbus A350 has 28 seats in business class in a 121 alternating staggered configuration. I’ve gone for seat 12J, a true window seat with slightly better privacy than isle seats. First impressions are pretty positive. This is a really fresh and openl looking cabin. But the first thing you should note is this isn’t the usual configuration of A350 that Korean are going to be flying around in the future. And here’s why. Korean’s taken delivery of two A350s that were originally destined for Asiana. Korean has merged with Asiana recently and hence now owns these two aircraft with Asiana’s seats. Korean intend to install a new and in my view better seat on the rest of their A350s, but these two examples flying now have the nicotine beige Asiana interior. It’s still a lovely place to be, but this product is far from revolutionary. This seat design is the Stilia Solstice, which is about 10 years old and already looks dated in the context of global fullervice airlines. When choosing a middle seat, the odd-numbered rows have true neighboring pairs like this for couples and friends, while the even-umbered ones have the seats spread further apart if you prefer to be antisocial. Gosh, there really are Asiana design clues all over the interior of this aircraft. order. H I love the guava. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it’s not often you get to fly an aircraft as new as this. and I’ll drink to that even if it’s not alcoholic. Cheers. That’s very nice, isn’t it? Let’s go to Korea. Hey, heat. Hey. Heat up here. We depart from runway 24 right and turn northwest to head for Seoul with about 90 minutes of flying time to complete today. Despite the airy and spacious feel of the cabin, for such a new aircraft, the hard product really is disappointing. There’s not even a storage cupboard on the console here, something which is basically standard now. And there is pretty limited storage elsewhere. There’s a USB, not USBC of course, charger, and universal socket and a remote control for the entertainment screen. The fold down table is disappointing in that it doesn’t allow you to exit while there’s anything on it. And this definitely feels like a seat which would have been good in about 2017. But in 2025, business class products have advanced a lot and this hasn’t. For lunch, I selected the Japanese-style brazed beef and potato. And this was a really good meal for the length of flight, and I enjoyed it a lot along with the soft roll which accompanied it. I had an orange juice and a ginonic, and to be perfectly honest, this part of the experience really delivered. That’s a solid eight out of 10 for the food on a fairly short flight. I discovered a pretty unforgivable floor in this business class seat while testing it out in lie flat mode. If you look fairly closely, you’ll see there’s quite a significant ridge in the bed, and I’d really struggle to sleep on this. And I’m shocked the airline will send this product on long haul flights very soon. These sold to Osaka runs are part of the bedding in process for the longer runs. Wi-Fi was free despite the connection saying it was unavailable. Not sure if that was a mistake, but hey, it worked and I’m not going to complain. And I could fire up Flight Radar 24 to check on our progress into Korea. Korean Air does have good noise cancelling headphones. Although in common with many Asian airlines, the entertainment is naturally catered for the local market. So don’t expect 5,000 Hollywood blockbusters on the menu. Finally, Korean’s new A350 bathroom is pretty pleasant. I really like their choice of toiletries, and it’s good to see there is not only a changing table here, but also a seat installed for passengers who want to change clothes into pajamas on long haul flights. It’s been a short flight and a real mixed bag and we’re already descending into Seoul. Heat. Heat. Korean’s new A350s might be of a different spec to their ideal, but the business class at least is really not up to scratch. An open and less private cabin with an uncomfortable bed and dated product, even when newly installed, is pretty disappointing. I paid £670 one way for a flight from Osaka to Seoul and connecting on to Singapore with the second leg on the mighty 747. And yes, a video will come to the channel soon on that. Thank you so much for watching and don’t forget,

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Welcome aboard Korean Air’s new A350-900 XBW aircraft! We’re heading from Osaka to Seoul on this short flight across to Korea – but I found a couple of things I didn’t like about this new A350 which really surprised me.

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0:00 Intro
0:35 Osaka Kansai Airport
2:05 KAL Lounge Osaka Airport
3:40 SAILY sponsor segment
5:06 Boarding our brand new A350-900
9:19 Taxi and takeoff
10:48 Seat tour in business class
11:44 Lunch service on Korean Air business class
12:50 The FLAW :((
14:00 Bathroom review
15:00 Approach, landing, conclusions and thanks

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