Airborne today,17 June,- Korean Air next up with the A380- but not to London.

Korean Air ,the sixth airline after Singapore, Emirates, Qantas, Air France and Lufthansa to get the A380 into service launches its inaugural services from Seoul to Toyko's Narita and Hong Kong today, 17th June. The hop to Tokyo is definately short haul territory but Hong Kong is four hours away. Next destination from early July will be Bangkok, another popular mass travel destination in the 4-5 hour flight time bracket.

The choice of these nearby destinations is sensible firstly because of the very high traffic volumes on each, secondly because it means that any initial technical problems occur not far from home base and thirdly because it provides a reasonably high number of landings and takeoffs per flying hour so that crews can accumulate flown sectors quickly.

European operations will begin on 26th September with Paris CDG the selected destination .Again this makes good business and operational sense as fellow Skyteam member Air France is based there with its own fleet of A380s and a comprehemsive spares holding. London may be disappointed but from the point of view of Korean's group tour operators,-the source of most of its leisure business,-Paris is a much better option both for a starting, and as we have discussed before, departure point for the "Round Europe 10 capitals in 10 days " kind of of itinerary. Either London and its additional £65 visa fee can be avoided altogether or, if it has to be included at least its penal levels of long haul departure tax can be avoided by making Paris the jumping off point for the final and long haul sector on the way home. It is unlikely that the UK Government in its precipitate chase for greener-than-thou credentials as well as generating as much revenue as possible from what they see as a captive business will worry too much. The possibility that Korean's choice is an early warning blip on the radar screen or instrument panel is unlikely to be understood. It's a bit like a doctor not recognising a small sign of future trouble and therefore not acting to head it off from the start. For the time being at least UK Plc is unlikely to be deflected from its current discouraging aviation policy.

Meanwhile congratulations to Korean today. The only other new A380 operator this year will be China Southern while 2012 also sees only two further additions, the neighbours Thai and Malaysia. Airbus are probably reasonably happy with that number while they further build other existing fleets, particularly Emirates',as it enables them to focus all their new operators support in a limited number of places at any one time while total fleet time and experience grows steadily across an increasing number of aircraft in service. Yesterday, 16th June, saw the much anticipated delivery of the 50th A380,Singapore Airlines 12th aircraft.