Korean Air is resuming multiple routes to China and Japan, after a three-year break, as it seeks to increase its numbers.
The resumed routes include Changsha, Wuhan, Weihai, Fukuoka and Nagoya, after a hiatus of three years and six months
The Seoul Incheon-Changsha route will resume operations with flights five times a week from the 19th of July. Meanwhile, the Seoul Incheon-Wuhan route restarted on the 24th of September, operating three times a week and Seoul Incheon-Weihai resumes operations from the 27th of September, flying four times a week.
Meanwhile, the focus on Japan will increase from Busan, with the airline resuming its Busan-Fukuoka and Busan-Nagoya routes on the 27th of September. The Fukuoka route will operate twice daily, whilst the Nagoya flight will operate daily.
These routes will be serviced by the Boeing 737-900ER, with a capacity of 173 passengers.
Other regional changes
Ulaanbaatar, Sapporo and Bali are all getting frequency uplifts as demand incresraae. The Seoul Incheon-Ulaanbaatar route has seen an increase from 7 to 8 times a week in July, and services will expand to 10 weekly flights for the month of August.
The airline has also increased frequencies from 7 to 11 times a week between Seoul Incheon and Sapporo since July and will increase flights from 9 to 11 times a week between Seoul Incheon and Bali by the end of August, adding additional flights on Friday and Saturday.
Long Haul
July was busy for Korean Air as it implemented frequency increases on several routes on its long-haul network.
In North America, the airline has expanded the number of flights on the Seoul Incheon-Chicago route from 5 to 7 times per week, between Seoul Incheon-Dallas from 4 to 5 times per week, and on the Seoul Incheon-San Francisco route from 7 to 9 times per week.
For its Europen operation, the airline has increased flight frequencies on the Incheon-Frankfurt route from 5 to 7 times per week, and between Incheon and Milan from 3 to 4 times per week.
A Recovering Network
Korean Air – like some airlines in the region – has encouraged a sluggish recovery as demand has slowly recovered (compared to other regions around the world.
With the routes finally gaining traction as well as recovering traffic, the airline’s available seat kilometre (ASK) capacity reached approximately 82% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Whilst that’s to be applauded, other airlines have started exceeding 2019 numbers as they take advantage of local conditions.
There is still plenty of work and traffic for the airline to recapture as time progresses and as it works through its merger with Asiana Airlines.
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And what are government idiots doing? They allow only 24 direct flights from China as week, about 10% of that pre-COVID, meaning that domestic airlines can charge whatever they want if you want to go to Asia, particularly China or Korea.
Time for everyone to let COVID go.