Asiana will fly to the Mongolian capital from July

Seoul-based Asiana Airlines confirms that it will add direct services from Seoul’s Incheon Airport to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, starting from July this year.

The three-times-weekly service is set to begin on July 9. The outbound flights to Ulaanbaatar are late evening flights, while the return legs are red-eyes. The flight schedule is shown below:

Meanwhile, according to the airline, weekend flights during the period September 1 and October 26 will be scheduled to depart later (marked in bold below).

Asiana will fly its 290-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft on this route. As can be seen from the seat map on the carrier’s website, the aircraft has 30 business class seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration, and 260 seats in economy class configured 2-4-2.

A spokesman from Asiana Airlines told Business Traveller Asia-Pacific that the route between Seoul (Incheon) and Ulaanbaatar has been exclusively operated by Korean Air since 1991.

“Under the monopoly that has lasted for almost 30 years, the price for this route is abnormally high and both countries decided to allow another airline to enter the market,” said this spokesman.

On February 25, 2019, Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport awarded Asiana the right to fly this route three times weekly.

Ulaanbaatar is the capital and the largest city of Mongolia. Currently, MIAT Mongolian Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, also flies daily between Ulaanbaatar and Seoul (Incheon), and twice a week to another Korean city, Busan.

Air Busan also flies three times a week between Busan and Ulaanbaatar.

flyasiana.com