Korean Air Increases Flights to Key Destinations for Winter 2023 Season

Dark/Light Mode (04/10/23)  Korean Air has unveiled plans to resume flights and increase operations during the winter season to select destinations in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, North America and Oceania.

The IATA winter season begins on the last Sunday of October and ends on the last Saturday of March every year. The winter 2023 season will be from 29 October 2023 to 30 March 2024.

Korean Air’s seat capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), reached approximately 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels in September, and is expected to recover to over 90 percent with the launch of the winter schedule.

The airline will launch a new daily service to Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, on 26 November 2023. The daily flight is scheduled to depart from Seoul Incheon at 15:45 and land in Phu Quoc at 19:50. The return flight is slated to depart Phu Quoc at 21:20 and arrive in Seoul Incheon at 04:50 the following day.

Korean Air Boeing 777-300ER reg: HL8008 at LHR in June 2023. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

Phu Quoc, located in the westernmost part of southern Vietnam, is a designated UNESCO biosphere reserve featuring pristine white beaches and evergreen forests. From marine activities and the national park to resorts, the island is an ideal destination for sun seekers year round. November is considered the best time to travel to Phu Quoc as the dry season begins.

After a hiatus of three years and seven months, Korean Air will resume services to three cities in China and Japan, respectively.

Network recovery in China and Japan has been relatively slower compared to other regions, and the resumption will help the airline restore its expansive global network.

For the China routes, Busan-Shanghai and Seoul Incheon-Xiamen will operate daily, while Seoul Incheon-Kunming will take off four times per week.

Korean will proactively increase its capacity to China to meet the growing number of Chinese visitors, especially following China’s resumption of group tours from August to 78 countries including Korea, Japan and the U.S.

From late October, the airline will resume routes from Seoul Incheon to Kagoshima, Niigata and Okayama with thrice weekly flights.

Korean will expand its China network capacity by increasing the Seoul Incheon-Beijing frequency to 18 times a week from daily; Jeju-Beijing to four times a week from thrice weekly; 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 from two.

The carrier will also 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 2023.

In the Southeast Asian region, Korean will increase flight frequencies on the Incheon-Bangkok route to five times daily from three; the Incheon- Manila route to triple daily from double daily; and the Seoul Incheon-Delhi and Seoul Incheon-Kathmandu routes to four times per week from three. The Incheon-Chiang Mai route frequency will become double daily from daily until 2 March 2024.

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.

A founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, Korean carried more than 27 million passengers in 2019, pre-COVID. The carrier serves 120 cities in 43 countries on five continents with a fleet of 156 aircraft and over 20,000 employees.

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