It’s bad news for regular travellers between Busan and Hong Kong, with Korean Air announcing today that it will be dropping its daily service between the two cities at the end of October.
The airline announced the decision on its Hong Kong Facebook page, stating the route will be suspended – a term frequently used by airlines to describe the termination of a service – as of October 28 this year.
Travellers heading between Busan and Hong Kong after this date will have to fly via Korean Air’s hub at Seoul Incheon and connect onto flights to Busan either from Incheon or Seoul Gimpo Airport.
A number of other carriers do also offer non-stop flights between Hong Kong and Busan, though unfortunately for business travellers two of these – Air Busan and HK Express – are low cost carriers.
Travellers looking for a non-stop, business class flight will only have Cathay Dragon’s daily service to choose in future. Cathay Dragon flies a mix of Airbus A321s and A320s to and from Busan, the former having 24 seats in business class and the latter eight.
Korean Air’s flights KE617/KE618 serving Busan-Hong Kong are currently operated by the airline’s Boeing 737-800, which has 12 Prestige Seats in its business class cabin.
This isn’t the only route Hong Kong is losing this October. Last month, Delta Air Lines announced it would be dropping its flights to the city from Seattle – its only service to Hong Kong – meaning passengers likely will have to first fly up to Seoul Incheon with Korean Air and then connect on to Delta’s flights to the US.
Korean Air and Delta entered into a joint-partnership agreement in April.
