Lufthansa To Fly 747-8 To Korea

Boeing's B747-8 superjumbo will begin flights to Korea for the first time, a potential rival to the world's largest passenger airliner Airbus A380.

To mark the 30th anniversary of its services to Korea, Lufthansa will temporarily operate B747-8 between Incheon and Frankfurt from March through June.

An improved version of the B747-400, the B747-8 can fly longer distances and is the longest passenger aircraft in service at 76.3 m compared to the A380's 72.7 m.

But Lufthansa's B747-8 comes with 386 seats as against 407 seats on Korean Air's A380.

Asiana Airlines recently announced it wants to use A380s with 495 seats starting this year.

Lufthansa became the world's first airline to operate the B747-8 in June 2012 and now has 10 of them. Korean Air will also acquire 10 B747-8s in phase starting in 2015.