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SEOUL—Korean Air has revealed the new aircraft livery that will be rolled out across its fleet and eventually applied to Asiana aircraft after the airlines integrate.
The new livery debuted March 10 on a Boeing 787-10 at Korean Air’s headquarters in Seoul. It is part of a broader effort to update the carrier’s branding and corporate identity, with redesigns for everything from food menus and uniforms to lounges.
Korean Air’s aircraft will retain the sky-blue fuselage color, but the paint will now have a slight metallic effect. The fuselage will bear the word Korean, rather than Korean Air, with the lettering changed and much larger. The familiar red-and-blue taegeuk tail symbol has been stylized in dark blue.
According to Korean, these changes represent the first major brand update in 41 years.
The redesign is partly spurred by Korean’s acquisition of Asiana, which will dramatically increase the combined airline’s size and international footprint. The acquisition was finalized in December 2024; Asiana will remain a subsidiary of Korean for two years. Full integration is expected to occur in January 2027.
Korean aims to repaint as many aircraft from its own fleet as possible before integration occurs, says Kenneth Chang, the airline’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. New deliveries will have the new paint job. Repainting the Asiana fleet can only occur after the integration date, Chang says.
Korean is still deciding whether to repaint aircraft it intends to phase out such as its Airbus A380s, Boeing 747-8 passenger versions and A220s, Chairman and CEO Walter Cho says.
The carrier intended to phase out A380s beginning this year but decided to postpone that to help cover for significant delivery delays of other new aircraft. Cho said Boeing and Airbus are about 20 aircraft behind where they should be in terms of deliveries.
Korean postponed the exit of 747-8 passenger jets and A220s have been postponed for the same reason. The phaseout of these three types will resume when the airline has enough aircraft delivered to serve its network, Cho says.
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