Seoul flights finally return to Brisbane Airport

The airline’s 777, HL7766, is set to depart the Queensland capital at 9:12am as flight KE408 and will arrive in the South Korean capital at 5:35pm.

Post-COVID, Brisbane didn’t have a service to South Korea despite Sydney offering five carriers on the route, including Qantas and Jetstar.

The new service will fly five times a week and will provide an additional 89,000 inbound seats each year, while the use of Korean Air’s large 777 will also boost air cargo services.

Brisbane Airport’s chief executive, Gert-Jan de Graaff, said, “South Korea is an economic powerhouse and this state’s third largest trading market and a major technology partner in Queensland’s new energy economy.”

The new route is one of a flurry of recent announcements that are slowly returning Australia’s international capacity to pre-COVID figures.

Australian Aviation reported last week how United would hugely expand its Australian and New Zealand operations later this year following its breakthrough codeshare agreement with Virgin Australia.

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The news will see Qantas face a contest on its currently exclusive route between Brisbane and LA as well as its planned service between Sydney and San Francisco, launching in May.

Other services include new direct flights from LAX to Auckland and San Francisco to Brisbane, Melbourne and Christchurch. In total, United will operate 66 flights between the US and Australia/New Zealand every week.

Qantas itself, meanwhile, launched a new route from Melbourne to Jakarta this month.

The new service will operate three times per week using Airbus A330 aircraft, adding to the national carrier’s existing Sydney to Jakarta flights.

This route is the fourth international service Qantas has added from Melbourne since border restrictions were lifted, following Delhi, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Tokyo (Haneda).

It is positioned against the Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, which flies between Melbourne and Jakarta twice a week.