Korean Air continues to report Strong Passenger Growth

Korean Air carried 1.97 million passengers in October 2005, up 12.8% compared to 1.75 million in the same period last year.

Revenue Passenger Kilometer (RPK) - the distance flown by paying passengers - rose 9.6% year-on-year in October to 4.18 billion RPK, compared to 3.81 billion RPK a year ago, thanks to increased capacity.

Domestic traffic grew 16.7% year-on-year to 355 million RPK in October. International traffic was up 9% to 3.82 billion RPK with the China market reporting the strongest growth. In this market, RPK jumped 19.1% year-on-year to 222 million. Passenger traffic in Southeast Asia also grew 16.6% to 595 million.

"It is encouraging to see continued growth in passenger demand," said Mr. Jong hee Lee, the president and COO of Korean Air. "Steady growth in travel demand is expected to continue as the Korean economy recovers," he added.

Korean Air expanded passenger capacity in October with Available Seat Kilometer (ASK) - a unit to calculate passenger capacity - rising 6.3% year-on-year to 5.76 billion ASK. Passenger load factor was up 2.2 percentage points to 72.5%.

Cargo filled 76.2% of available space in October, up 0.4 percentage points from a year ago. This was due to a 5.7% capacity reduction following the decrease in traffic of 5.2%, to 734 million freight tonne kilometer (FTK) - a unit calculating cargo volume in relation to flying distance.

FTK for China and Europe operations rose 24.4% and 3.8% respectively, but FTK for America and Southeast Asia was down 9.1% and 15.1% respectively.

"We expect a recovery in cargo demand at the end of the year. As such, we have added a B747-400ERF to our fleet to meet the anticipated rebound," said Mr Lee.

In addition to launching a new uniform for all airline employees in October, Korean Air has designed a new and futuristic interior to reinforce its vision and mission - "to be a leader in global leading airlines" and "Excellence in Flight". The new interior design combines the concepts of "comfort at home" and "the spirit of new Korea". The new interiors will be rolled out across Korean Airs entire fleet by 2007.

The carrier has installed new seats with biomedical engineering, Audio-Video System On Demand and Inflight Internet service on all US-bound flights. The entire fleet will be equipped with these facilities by 2007.

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Korean Air