Korean Air accidentally leaks details of stunning Airbus A321neo cabins PHOTO

It appears that Korean Air accidentally unveiled the interiors of its Airbus A321neo aircraft, the first of which joined the airline’s fleet less than a month ago.

The interior has a brand new design style, with features that have a long-haul focus. This is in contrast to the interior of Korean Air’s other short-haul aircraft types, like its Airbus A220-300s, Simple Flying reported on November 20.

For example, the airline’s business class cabin, the Prestige Class, has cradle recliner seats on short-haul aircraft, but it looks like it will have lie flat beds on the A321neos. At the same time, the fabric on the A321neos has a dark color scheme, in contrast to Korean’s current light blue and white colors.

According to PaxEx, this is a customized variant of the Collins Aerospace Diamond full flat seat. The photo reveals the eight-seat layout of two rows of two seats on each side of the aisle, just like on Korean’s Boeing 737 MAX 8s.

The Prestige Class seats feature a 63-inch pitch and 19 inches of width, as well as a large 17-inch SAFRAN RAVE entertainment monitor and a tablet holder built into the tray table. There is wireless phone charging in the armrest, and there are AC and USB power ports.

In economy class, the A321neos also have a different color scheme than what Korean Air’s customers will be used to.

The seats in economy also come with AC and USB power ports, but not with wireless charging. There will be 174 seats on this aircraft type, with a pitch ranging between 31 and 32 inches and with 17.8” width. All seats will have entertainment monitors.

The overhead lockers will be Airbus’ larger XL bins, offering more space for customers’ bags than on Korean’s other aircraft.

The rear lavatories on these A321neos appear to have been placed in front of the exit rather than embedded in the rear gallery space as part of a Space-Flex option. It is not yet clear whether the aircraft will have in-flight WiFi.

Where will the A321neos be used?

The aircraft is scheduled to enter service on 1st December to fly some of the rotations between Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport (GMP) and Jeju International Airport (CJU). This is a busy route; Korean Air alone has almost thirty daily rotations. Interestingly, flights that will operate with an Airbus A321neo on the route have the shortest block time, shorter than the scheduled duration for the A220 and the Boeing 737 rotations. Korean Air is yet to reveal where it will use the aircraft in the summer of 2023.

Korean Air has a diverse fleet

The Airbus A321neo is yet another aircraft type in Korean's fleet. Its narrowbodies include both the Airbus A220 and Boeing 737 family jets. Its widebodies also come from both Boeing and Airbus, with both the 747 and the A380 in use by the airline. The airline ordered 30 A321neos with 20 options in 2015.