Korean Air transforms into top passenger, cargo carrier

30 November 2004

The Korea Herald



Korean Air Co., the nation's No. 1 carrier, is weathering the storm caused by the gloomy global business environment including high-flying jet fuel prices.



In recent months, Korean Air shed unprofitable international routes to China and Europe to help reduce costs.



Despite higher fuel costs and competition from the nation's bullet-train service, the nation's biggest air carrier said operating profit rose 29 percent to 213.6 billion won in the third quarter as overseas travel by Koreans and cargo shipments remained robust.



The airline carried more chips, cell phones and appliances to North America and Europe from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan during the period. Korean Air is the world's second-largest cargo carrier after Deutsche Lufthansa AG.



Last month, Korean Air introduced a new call center in Qingdao, China, one of the most fast-growing markets. The new China call center allows customers to have easier way to make reservations and to access travel information such as arrival and departure information, airfares and other special offers. The company's bilingual staff provide services in Korean, Mandarin and English.



The call center is open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. seven days a week. After business hours, the callers can leave a brief message and the call will be returned the following day.



Korean Air is also aggressively marketing itself to the Latin American market because of its large North American operation. The airline has nine U.S. gateways and non-stop flights to Asia from Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Washington and Dallas, among other cities. LAN Airlines is one of Latin America's leading airlines groups and includes LanDominicana, LanPeru and LanEcuador, serving 16 destinations in Chile, seven destinations in Peru, two in Ecuador, plus nearly 20 other destinations in Latin America.



Korean Air Cargo also is in talks with LAN Cargo about possible code-sharing and joint marketing agreements as cargo demand is expected to increase.



In the future, Korean Air plans to cooperate with other major airlines in Central and South America so that passengers will have a seamless and convenient travel experience when flying to the region.



The company's ambitious long-term strategy is to ensure the carrier's competitiveness in the global airline industry. At the celebration of the airline's 35th anniversary held in March, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, Cho Yang-ho, said he would provide customers a greatly enhanced in-flight experience and instill a new corporate culture within the airline.



"For the past 35 years, we have focused on expanding our worldwide route network and fleet so that, combined with our SkyTeam alliance, we can take anyone and anything to anywhere, anytime. Now it is time we redefine our airline to our customers and ourselves, and to grow into a vibrant, spirited organization," said Cho.



Korean Air, with a fleet of 119 aircraft, is one of the world's top 20 airlines, and operates almost 400 flights everyday to 90 cities in 33 countries. The airline has about 50 flights per week between the United States and Asia from nine U.S. gateways: New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Anchorage and Honolulu.



The carrier is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airline alliance partnering AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM and Northwest Airlines to provide customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services.

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