Air Koryo

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Air Koryo
Ilyushin Il-62M of Air Koryo
IATA code : JS
ICAO code : COR
Call sign : AIR KORYO
Founding: 1950
Seat: Pyongyang , North KoreaKorea NorthNorth Korea 
Turnstile :

Sunan Airport

Home airport : Sunan International Airport
IATA prefix code : 120
Fleet size: 23 (of which 18 are active)
Aims: National and international
Website: www.airkoryo.com.kp

Air Koryo is the state-owned North Korean airline based in Pyongyang and based at Sunan Airport .

history

Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 고려 항공
Hanja : 高麗 航空
Revised Romanization : Goryeo Hanggong
McCune-Reischauer : Koryŏ Hanggong

Since 1950 there was the airline SOKAO , a Soviet-North Korean joint venture, which was operated with Soviet machines and flight personnel. Chosŏn Minhang ( kor. 조선 민항 , 朝鮮 民航 ) was founded as a successor in 1954 and was renamed Air Koryo (JS) in 1993 . Air Koryo reports to the Civil Aviation Office. This in turn is part of the North Korean Air Force , all pilots are officers of the army. Flight operations began on September 21, 1955.

In 1958, the first domestic flight routes were established: Pyongyang - Hamhung and Pyongyang - Chongjin . International connections have been served since the late fifties, including until the 1990s once a week with Ilyushin Il-62M the routes Pyongyang - Berlin , Pyongyang - Moscow and Pyongyang - Moscow - Sofia . In 1975 the company put its first jet aircraft into service with a Tupolev Tu-154 . In Germany, even after the end of the regular weekly approach, Air Koryo occasionally flew to Berlin-Schönefeld airport until the turn of the millennium, mostly for the transport of relief supplies or diplomats.

In March 2006 Air Koryo was added to the list of operating bans for the airspace of the European Union and has since been banned from flying into European airspace. The airline had previously been banned from using French airspace in April 2001 by the French aviation authority DGAC .

At the beginning of 2008 the first new Tupolev Tu-204-300 joined the fleet. This is Air Koryo's first newly built aircraft in many years. It has upscale facilities such as LCD screens and currently serves the routes from Pyongyang to Beijing and Pyongyang – Shenyang. In April 2010, the airline was permitted, subject to conditions, to fly into EU airspace with Tupolev Tu-204 aircraft. Observers certify that the aircraft are well maintained and point out that there is no noticeable accumulation of accidents.

On March 2, 2016, a UN resolution was passed prohibiting UN members from selling kerosene to Air Koryo and banning landing, take-off and even overflight for Air Koryo aircraft should the aircraft in question in accordance with previous resolutions transport prohibited merchandise. Flights to Kuwait , Pakistan and Thailand were then suspended.

Destinations

Airline office building in Pyongyang ( Chung-guyŏk )

As of April 2019, the flight schedule includes four destinations in East Asia: Beijing three times a week, plus Vladivostok , Shanghai and Shenyang . In recent years, charter traffic has been to various destinations in Eastern Asia, including Macau , Beijing, Shenyang, Taiyuan , Dandong and Vladivostok. Flights to domestic destinations ( Hamhung , Chongjin , Paektusan , Sinŭiju and Wonsan ) were also carried out in the charter.

In addition, the company is available for occasional transport, for example for the transport of North Korean delegations abroad. As part of the inter-Korean family reunions, Air Koryo has been flying to the South Korean capital Seoul several times since 2000 .

In 2014, one of the two Ilyushin Il-62s operated for the North Korean government was phased out as a presidential aircraft for Kim Jong-un .

fleet

Cabin of a Tupolev Tu-204 of Air Koryo

Current fleet

As of May 2020, Air Koryo's fleet consists of 24 aircraft with an average age of 34.1 years:

Aircraft type active inactive Remarks
Antonov An-24 4th 2 2 active An-24B, 2 active An-24RV. 1 each inactive An-24B and
An-24RV, the An-24B P-537 is the oldest active machine in the
fleet (built in 1966)
Antonov An-148-100 2 P-671 : received brand new 02/2013
P-672 : received brand new 03/2015
Ilyushin Il-18D 1 1 P-835 : built in 1969, in operation
P-836 : built in 1966, the
last aircraft of this type in the world in passenger flight operations
Ilyushin Il-62 2 P-885 : built in 1979; P-881 : built in 1986, the
last aircraft of this type in the world for passenger flights
Ilyushin Il-76TD 3
Tupolev Tu-134B-3 2 P-813 and P-814 , both built in 1984, the last aircraft of
this type in the world in passenger flight operations
Tupolev Tu-154B-2 2 2
Tupolev Tu-204-300 2 P-632 : Year of construction 1993, received 12/2007
P-633 : Brand new received 01/2009
total 18th 5

Air Koryo also operates two Ilyushin Il-62s for the government of North Korea.

Future fleet

Air Koryo's fleet consists largely of old commercial aircraft from Russia . The problem is that Air Koryo is not allowed to buy new aircraft due to sanctions from the United Nations , but the United Nations are open to easing the sanctions so that Air Koryo can continue to ensure safe flight operations. It is likely that North Korea will buy new aircraft from Russia.

Trivia

Air Koryo went online for a short time in 2012 with its own web presence. The travel agency Destinia from Spain has been offering online bookings for the airline since September 2014. A ticket office is located u. a. in the Pyongyang district of Chung-guyŏk . The airline has had its own website again since 2015.

incident

The Air Koryo Tupolev Tu-204-300 ( registration number P-632) affected by the incident

On July 22, 2016 had Tupolev Tu-204-300 ( Mark P-632) from Air Koryo on the way from Pyongyang to Beijing on the Chinese Shenyang Taoxian Airport emergency landing after had developed in the passenger cabin smoke. People were not harmed. Great Britain took the incident as an opportunity to revise its travel advice for North Korea.

See also

Web links

Commons : Air Koryo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Black list of the EU. Spiegel Online, March 22, 2006
  2. European Commission - List of air carriers whose entire operation is prohibited in the Community ( Memento of February 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file) As of December 3, 2013
  3. ^ Daniel Ludwig: A pinch of Soviet aviation history . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 255 , November 1, 2012 ( article on NZZonline ).
  4. Air Koryo are running out of targets , accessed March 4, 2017
  5. a b North Korea: Air Koryo tries to get new Russian aircraft. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. April 18, 2019, accessed on April 18, 2019 (German).
  6. Stefan Eiselin: Kim Jong-un has his own jet , May 13, 2014
  7. [1] , accessed on May 17, 2020
  8. a b c Patrick Zwerger: Soviet Scrap Metal : The Air Koryo Fleet , Flugrevue , June 30, 2019.
  9. [2] , accessed December 20, 2019
  10. Spaniards sell Air Koryo tickets , accessed September 10, 2014
  11. Incident: Koryo T204 near Shenyang on Jul 22nd 2016, smoke in cabin , accessed on July 27, 2016
  12. North Korean aircraft had to make an emergency landing in China. ORF , July 22, 2016
  13. North Korea: Great Britain warns of Air Koryo | aeroTELEGRAPH. July 30, 2016, accessed July 31, 2016 .