Korean Air has unveiled a unique feature on board its new A380 superjumbo — a luxury duty free shop available to passengers during their flight.

In the battle for the flashest and most innovative Airbus A380 implementation Korean Air has raised the stakes with its plans for an in-flight duty free shop on all 10 of its A380 Aircraft the first of which will go into operation on 10 June 2011 on the Seoul to Japan route.

The Korean Air A380 in-flight duty free shop will feature 5 display units, the first being a video display which simply shows product advertising that companies can purchase advertising on, the other display units include a liquor display unit, cosmetics display unit and a display unit for high value items such as jewellery and watches.

Chris Whetter Sales/Project director at AIM says that Korean Air’s A380 in-flight duty free shop will be located on the main deck at the rear of the aircraft, in fact the shops liquor and cosmetics display units will be located either side of the rear stairs that lead to the upper deck and the air crafts Lounge/Bar area.

Mr Whetter explains that during a flight first class passengers will first be invited to browse the duty free shop, followed by Business Class passengers, and finally if there is adequate time remaining economy class passengers would be invited.

“The shop replaces 13 seats on the aircraft so you’re losing a lot of revenue, but the Korean mentality is that they buy all the duty free on every flight,” says Whetter. “It was Korean’s concept to do it and they approached us as being one of the companies with very high quality and excellent design. There were two bidders and we won the programme.”

“If there is severe turbulence the shop has to be emptied out,” says Whetter, adding that “on taxi, take-off and landing the alcohol has to be stowed”

Korean Air believes that by selling high priced upmarket duty free items will more than offset the revenue lost from the 13 seats that their in-flight duty free shop takes up. In addition the display unit and duty free goods added to this the weight of the shop will be less than the combined seating luggage of 13 passengers therefore there would be less fuel burn. If all goes to plan it looks like it will be a win/win for both passengers and the airline.

The first of Korean Air’s 10 A380 aircraft goes into operation on 10 June 2011 between Seoul and Tokyo, followed by Bangkok, Hong Kong and North American routes.

Korean Air is scheduled to induct the double-decker Airbus A380 plane in its fleet this year by May. They have made very luxurious plans for the new plane and its interiors. They plan turn the entire upper deck of an Airbus A380 into a luxurious space for business class passengers with lie-flat seats. The total number of seats in the plane will be reduced, but the idea is to provide space and comfort on long haul flights.

The Korean Air design for Airbus A380 will provide only 407 seats. This is, so far, the lowest number of seats on any commercial A380 flying with any of the airlines. The entire upper deck which is being converted to Business Class will accommodate 94 passengers. There will be 12 First Class suits in the nose of the plane. The lower deck will house the Economy Class with a total of 301 seats.

The configuration of three classes is identical to most other airlines but the design aims at passenger comfort and luxury more than optimizing the number of seats on the large plane. Korean Air has ordered a total of 10 Airbus A380. The delivery of the planes will start in May and go on through the year.

Korean Air is to next year launch a low-cost subsidiary carrier to be called Air Korea in a bid to challenge new competitors.

Air Korea will have  flights to China’s Shandong and Hainan provinces next year, according to Xinhua News. The new company is expected to begin its operation in May, with flights from Korea’s Incheon Airport to China’s Shandong province and Hainan province.