News
Korean Air announces flights to Boston
August 10th 2018
South Korean flag carrier, Korean Air (KAL) continues its North American expansion with the launch of five a week B787-9 flights from Seoul Incheon to Boston Logan International Airport from next April 12. Read More »
The SkyTeam member serves 10 destinations in the U.S. and also flies to Vancouver and Toronto. The airline said Boston was the most popular market for service to South Korea without direct flights.
Korean Air has a trans-Pacific joint venture with Delta Air Lines. The U.S. carrier is expected to provide significant domestic feeder traffic for Korean Air’s Boston service. Delta has announced a Minneapolis-Incheon B777-200ER route as part of the joint venture, also from next April.
“This additional Delta flight will be an exciting way for many of our customers in Minnesota and in cities across the U.S. to access Seoul and dozens of destinations in Asia with one convenient connection in the world-class Terminal 2 at Incheon,” said Delta’s president, international and executive vice president, global sales, Steve Sear. “We look forward to April when the inaugural flight takes off from both airports, signifying how the Delta-Korean Air joint venture benefits our customers, our employees, the communities we serve and our shareholders.”
The JV will offer 115 flights a week on 13 routes between South Korea and the U.S. in 2019, a 10% increase compared with this year.
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has added a number of caveats to the fine print of the agreement. Of importance is the requirement that both airlines must not reduce capacity on the five South Korea-U.S. routes they operate without competition. They are Korean Air’s Seoul to Las Vegas and Washington Dulles flights and Delta’s Seoul-Detroit, Seoul-Seattle and Seoul-Atlanta (operated by both airlines).
The partners also must provide annual reports on improvements to customer benefits from the tie-up and any changes in capacity.
“We will closely monitor the reports and check any side effects that could occur on the routes where the two firms have a big market share,” South Korea’s MLIT said.
The combined network formed by the JV gives Delta and Korean Air passengers access to more than 290 destinations in the Americas and more than 80 in Asia. Earlier this year, Delta and Korean Air co-located into the new Terminal 2 at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, substantially reducing connecting times for customers. Korean Air rival, Asiana Airlines, does not have a trans-Pacific joint venture with either Air Canada or United Airlines, its Star Alliance partners in North America.
