Review of Korean Air flight from Osaka to Seoul in Economy

After 3 nights in Osaka, I headed to the airport for my return flight on Korean Air's new A350.

I spent my time in Osaka not really as a typical tourist. I spent a day at the KIX sky view and another day at ITM sky park. I strongly recommend the latter for plane spotting, although the former is not bad either.

I lucked out on my day in ITM as I was able to catch the Oneworld livery JAL A350, operating the OKA-ITM sector. 
This is my first time looking at the pictures through a big screen like this laptop I'm writing on, and I must say the shortcomings of a phone camera really stands out once you get past the phone screen.

I headed out of the hotel at around 6 in the morning. You'd probably wonder why I'm heading out so early, but I wanted to catch some planes at the gate before I boarded, as I read online that Kansai had great views out the apron.
I asked beforehand after arrival into KIX, whether I could check in my bag for KE724 when it was only check in for KE722, the morning flight before my mid day flight. I got my confirmation, so I headed out extra early.

I took the train to the airport. There weren't a lot of people, seemingly as it was early in the morning, and also because there are a lot of trains going to Kansai, with the Rapi:t being the most famous. The Rap:it trains looked very striking the first time I saw them, but I saw no merit in actually taking them as the saved time didn't justify the price.

You can see the regular train and the Rapi:t at the platform at Namba Station.

Lots of advertising going on as the Osaka Expo was due in a few months.

Korean  Air's check in desks were located on the C counters. 
The airline logo being shown on the screen right below the massive sign for the counters made it really intuitive to locate where I was supposed to go, as opposed to checking the departure board and then locating the counters.

Check in was well underway, but not for my flight, but the one before our flight to ICN. Just to note, there is another flight to GMP around the same timeframe as flight 724, so I'd imagine the check in would've been much more crowded had I arrived at the "normal" time for my flight.

I made my way to the Economy check in line.

A printed seat map for my flight was shown as I confirmed my seat selection. I'd imagine as these are purely Asiana's only with Korean's crew and livery, this would be a sight that is short-lived. However, with the seats for Asiana's A350 config already ordered, there is speculation that these planes are here to stay for quite a bit.
As a side note, the check in agent seemed to be quite confused at first when I told her I actually was on the next flight, and not the morning flight. She had to ask who I presume to be the supervisor, who helped along. My bag wasn't put on the carousel straight away, and it was moved to the side. I think it was too early to put it through the conveyor. 

After checking in and getting my boarding pass, I stopped at a convenience store to grab a bite before I proceed.

After making my way through security and the obviously-placed-to-lure-you-into-shopping duty free section, I was first greeted by an ANA 787.

The traffic seen at KIX in the morning. I was very pleased with the variety seen here and very glad I made the choice to come extra early. I was pretty shocked though with the condition of the TAX A330. The nose looked as if it'd been through warfare.

Japan Transocean Air 737 with the Jinbei Jet Livery which don't know the meaning of. It's nice seeing Japan be so proactive on the special livery front. This makes sense when you learn how active avgeeks in Japan are. Just a simple case of supply and demand. Also, there's a sign saying 'FUELING OK', I guess to signal that it's finished refueling?

Singapore Airlines' 787-10 at the gate. Look at the paint peeling off on this frame. Makes me feel old seeing the 787-10s wear this much.

An incredibly strange sight to see, if you aren't aware of United's pacific operation. This 737 operates pacific hops, scheduled to Guam later in the day. It has split scimitar winglets, which United seems to be very positive about, installing them on quite a lot of 737s.

Ah yes, HL7732. After seeing this jet in Hanoi, I got to see it again as the flight to ICN today. This arrived in KIX as OZ112, which was the flight I took a few days prior to this day, on the A350, however.

Very pleased with the traffic today, lucked out seeing a lot of special liveries.

Our plane for today, HL8598, arrived from ICN as KE723. It was a shame that the weather was quite gloomy. It parked next to the 737 that was bound for GMP.
As of February 2025, there were two A350s (HL8597, HL8598) operating two routes, ICN-FUK and ICN-KIX, with four sectors a day. 8597 and 8598 were alternating between the FUK schedule and the KIX schedule, and my flight was 8598's turn for KIX.
Technically, HL8597 was the first to be registered as Korean Air's A350 as shown by the registration number, but Korean Air took delivery of HL8598 first, as there were issues with 8597. So you can say this was Korean Air's first ever A350.

If I recall correctly ICN-KIX is one of the busiest international routes in the world. You could definitely guess if you took one look at the board.

Our flight was assigned gate 10, which is at the very north side of the terminal. Looks like Korean Air's flights get assigned gates in the north side all the time, as the morning flight was at gate 9 I believe, and the GMP flight was next to us at gate 11.
The A350 with Korean Air colors look spectacular, but the tiny Korean Air letters, almost like the livery before its revision, ruins it for me. Would've been an absolute 10/10 had it gotten bigger prints.

I was one of the last ones to board, as always. The small printing is clearly visible, only spanning between L1 and L2, when the normal logo would've gone way past L2. Also don't know if it's just my mind playing games, but the silver cheat line seems to be thinner as well.

The view from 44J. Personally my favorite wing view for the A350, with a nice view of the flaps and also the curvature of the winglets. The registration is also written on the wings, but it's not easily visible.
There was an Air Busan A321 next to us, maybe the Korean airlines are gathered on the north side, not just Korean Air.

This was the view with the camera set at 2x zoom, which I think better illustrates the true scale of the wings.
I wished the winglets would be painted as well but didn't expect it as it was never painted on Korean Air. But, I did expect the winglets to be the same color with the wing. The whole thing is just bland and mildly infuriating to look at.

View of the cabin as we taxied to the runway. Looks to be pretty full, as it is peak times just before back to school after all.

We took off from 24L and turned right heading northwest to Korea.
One thing to note, as of writing, the runway ops changed again so that departures are assigned 06L/24R and arrivals are assigned 06R/24L. 

You can see just how clean the wing looks as this is a brand new plane.

This is another sight that you can't see now, as the safety card design went through a change with the rebranding. Twice, actually, as it now comes in a foldable design as opposed to the old one which was just a plain card the size of a piece of A4 paper.

As this is just a short hop, the meal was served in a little box. Honestly, the Asian market is so much higher in terms of standards of service compared to Europe or America it's hard to ask for more. In a European flight of this length, you'd be lucky to get some bread with a drink.
The mixed nuts being Japanese makes me think this flight was catered in KIX but the water provided says otherwise. Not sure if there's enough room for two sets of catering, but I read somewhere that it is an actual thing.
The meal itself was Korean Bulgogi, which pleased me enough and probably will for a lot of the people.

When the crew were finishing up the meal service, we entered the Korean peninsula. 

Overhead display screens on the A350.

As with all other Japan inbounds and North America inbounds we turned right on KPO and headed northwest towards ICN on Y685.

Speedbrakes on as we descend into ICN.

Right under the flap fairing where the river is is Bundang, where I live. While on arrival into GMP or ICN I always try to spot where I live from above. You can also slightly see the big patch of road, which is the Seoul TG on the longest highway in South Korea.

On approach into 33L at ICN you'll see the Incheon bridge that runs alongside the approach. This picture also shows just how high the pitch angle is on approach.

On final

Landed on 33L in very windy conditions. I fully expected to go around with just how windy it was, but the professionals at the front of the plane were very composed.

After a short taxi we arrived at our gate. One good touch when it comes to Korean Air is their music. They have a track list for boarding, landing and deplaning with different lists depending on destination.

One last look at my seat before I leave. The A350s are no exception and have the new Korean Air seat pattern, which I don't like one bit. Seems very soulless and out of style with the Korean Air colors. I much prefer the blue, or even the dentist chairs.

Decided to use my free will and sit on the bulkhead seat before deplaning. This would be the engine view if you sat on the bulkhead of the Economy cabin.

Business class, with Asiana's hard product. They changed the seat covers to this black that they're pushing in Business but seemed like they couldn't change the trim around the seats with the overall beige colors, which makes for a very mismatched feel in the cabin.

Still very surreal that Korean Air took delivery of my favorite aircraft. Just a few years ago seeing an A350 in Korean Air colors would've been just an imagination. Korean Air prefers doing the maintenance work on their fleet in house with their facilities at ICN and PUS. However, with the Rolls Royce engine being the only option on the A350s and Rolls Royce requiring a special license to maintain their engines, which Korean Air doesn't have, it has always been a conflict of interest making Korean Air A350s just an imagination. Now, with these special events of the merger going on, we're able to see things never seen before.

Went through security and made my way out.