Korean Air will expand its operations for the winter season in line with demand and resume routes and increase frequencies to Japan, Southeast Asia, China, North America and Oceania.
The SkyTeam carrier will also be launching a new scheduled service to Phu Quoc, Vietnam on 26 November.
The IATA (International Air Transport Association) winter season begins on the last Sunday of October and ends on the last Saturday of March every year, and the IATA Winter 2023 season will be from 29 October to 30 March, 2024.
Korean Air’s seat capacity (measured by Available Seat Kilometers or ASK) reached approximately 85 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in September and is expected to recover to over 90 per cent with the launch of the winter schedule.
New daily service to Phu Quoc, Vietnam
Korean Air will launch a new daily service to Phu Quoc, Vietnam on 26 November.
Vietnam’s largest island, Phu Quoc is also known as “Pearl Island.” The daily flight departs from Seoul Incheon at 1545 to land in Phu Quoc at 1950. The return flight leaves Phu Quoc at 2120 and arrives in Seoul Incheon the following early morning at 0450.
Korean Air will deploy its widebody Airbus A330-300 aircraft to Phu Quoc. The airport recently extended its runway and apron to make this possible.
The carrier’s A330-300s seat 24 passengers across a 2-2-2 configuration in ‘Prestige’ business class, and 252-260 passengers across a 2-4-2 configuration in economy class.
Resuming services to cities in Japan and China
After three years and seven months of hiatus, Korean Air will resume services to three cities in China and Japan, respectively.
Starting in late October, the airline will resume routes from Seoul Incheon to Kagoshima, Niigata and Okayama with three flights a week each.
On the China front, Korean Air will relaunch Busan-Shanghai and Seoul Incheon-Xiamen (both daily), and Seoul Incheon-Kunming four times a week.
Korean Air will further expand its China capacity by increasing Seoul Incheon-Beijing to 18 times a week from daily flights currently offered; Jeju-Beijing to four times a week from three; Seoul Incheon-Shenzhen and Seoul Incheon-Xian to daily from four times a week; Seoul Incheon-Wuhan to four times a week from three; and Seoul Incheon-Hong Kong to four daily flights from two daily now.
Korean Air will increase frequencies on the Seoul Incheon-Osaka and Seoul Incheon-Fukuoka routes to four daily from three; and on the Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita route to four daily from two. The airline will also expand services on the Seoul Incheon-Nagoya route to operate 17 times a week from two daily until 27 December.
In the Southeast Asian region, the airline will increase flight frequencies on the Incheon-Bangkok route to five times daily from three; the Incheon-Manila route to three times daily from two; and the Seoul Incheon-Delhi and Seoul Incheon-Kathmandu routes to four times a week from three. The Incheon-Chiang Mai route frequency will increase to twice daily from daily through 2 March next year.
Frequencies on the Seoul Incheon-Auckland and Seoul Incheon-Brisbane routes will increase to daily from five times a week from 10 November to 18 March next year. The Seoul Incheon-Las Vegas route frequency will also increase to five times a week from four flights a week currently operated.
