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Founded | 21 September 1955 (as Korean Airways) | ||||||
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Hubs | Pyongyang International Airport | ||||||
Fleet size | 20 | ||||||
Destinations | 4 | ||||||
Parent company | National Aviation Administration of the DPRK[2] | ||||||
Headquarters | Ryongbung-ri, Sunan District, Pyongyang, North Korea | ||||||
Key people | An Pyong-chil (Director of the General Bureau of Civil Aviation) | ||||||
Website | www |
Air Koryo | |
Chosŏn'gŭl | |
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Hancha | |
Revised Romanization | Goryeo Hanggong |
McCune–Reischauer | Koryŏ Hanggong |
Air Koryo (Korean: 고려항공; Hancha: 高麗航空; MR: Koryŏ Hanggong) is North Korea’s flag carrier and only commercial airline.[3] It is state-owned and controlled by the North Korean air force.[3] Headquartered in Sunan-guyŏk, Pyongyang,[4] it operates domestic and international routes – on a regular schedule only to Beijing, Shenyang, and Vladivostok[5][6][7] – from its hub at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport.[8] It also operates flights on behalf of the North Korean government, with one of its aircraft serving as North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un's personal plane.[9][10][11][12] Its fleet consists of Ilyushin and Tupolev aircraft from the Soviet Union and Russia, and Antonovs from Ukraine.
Air Koryo’s history can be traced to the founding of the Soviet–North Korean Airline (SOKAO) in 1950.[13] Following the Korean War, in 1955, the airline was reorganized as Korean Airways and started domestic and international routes to other communist Eastern Bloc states in Asia and Europe.[14] Another reorganization followed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in 1993, the airline adopted its current name, Air Koryo.[15] Due to its aging fleet of Soviet aircraft and related safety and maintenance concerns, Air Koryo was banned in the European Union between 2006 and 2020, when it was allowed to resume operations into the EU with their newly acquired Tu-204 aircraft.[16] During the rule of Kim Jong Un, Air Koryo also started branching out into commercial sectors beyond aviation, such as ground transportation and consumer goods.[17] The COVID-19 pandemic caused Air Koryo to suspend regular operations, with no scheduled international flights between 2020 and 2023.[18]