On 19APR 50 years ago, a Korean Air Boeing 707 took off from Seoul Gimpo Airport (GMP), making stops in Tokyo and Honolulu before landing in Los Angeles. Now, the carrier celebrates its 50th anniversary of serving the Americas.
50 Years of Contribution to the Transpacific Market
The airline began by serving only two cities in the U.S. – Honolulu and Los Angeles. It now flies out of 13 gateways across North America and has an Americas headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.
While the airline carried about 43,800 passengers between the U.S. and Seoul in 1972, it flew over 3 million passengers between the U.S. and Korea in 2019.
The flying time has also been reduced to 11 hours from 17 hours on its nonstop flight. The airline initially used a 171-seater Boeing 707 on its first route to the U.S, and it now operates the Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 on the Americas routes.
In Canada, Korean Air offers direct flights to YVR and YYZ from its ICN hub. The carrier flies to YVR four times weekly and to YYZ three times weekly.
Connecting to the U.S. for 50 Years
Pre-COVID, approximately 1.11 million Koreans travelled on Korean Air flights to the U.S. annually, and they are estimated to have spent about USD $4 billion during their stay, says the carrier.
Since the launch of its first U.S. route, Korean Air has grown to serve 120 cities in 43 countries. The airline co-founded the SkyTeam Alliance together with Delta Air Lines, Aeroméxico and Air France in 2000, but also launched a transpacific joint venture with Delta Air Lines in 2018, connecting customers to more than 290 cities in the U.S. and 80 points in Asia.
“As a proud joint venture partner, we want to congratulate Korean Air on the significant milestone of connecting the U.S. and Korea for a half-century,’” said Matteo Curcio, Vice President – Asia Pacific, Delta Air Lines. “We look forward to working together to seamlessly connect even more customers between the Americas and Asia via our Incheon hub for years to come.”
