Air Koryo, the flag carrying airline of the DPRK officially launched their website in 2013 promising “a convenient reservation … day and night”. We’ve been using Air Koryo for many years now for our popular Kim Il Sung and Arirang Mass Games tours, among many others. This isn’t the first time Air Koryo have had an online presence, but it is the first official site.
Air Koryo up in 1950, under the name Chosonminhang – an airline ran by the Soviet Union and the DPRK to connect Pyongyang with Moscow. Air Koryo fly mainly Tupolev and Ilyushin aircrafts on their international flights to China and Russia, our customers have noted that it provides a rare opportunity to fly on Russian aircraft, rather than the European Airbus or American Boeing used by most western large airlines. The new website probably the first by a flag carrier airline to not be of any use to residents of it’s flag carrying country, as internet isn’t readily available to citizens of the DPRK
More recently though, Air Koryo has been probably most famous for being the only airline to have a 1 star rating on Skytrax, and for being previously banned for flying within the EU. However, times are changing. Between 2007 and 2015 Air Koryo has acquired four shiny new aircraft, vastly lowering the fleet’s average age, being allowed back into EU airspace after showing their new, safer, aircraft to the European Commission.
It is not possible for tourists to book Air Koryo tickets directly with the company due to ongoing UN sanctions.
Following the launch of the website it was also discovered that the airline’s tremendously popular Facebook page was run by Russian pilots who managed to fool followers into believing the page was official for 2 years (2010 to 2012).
If you want the opportunity to fly with Air Koryo, book your North Korea tour with us or experience a Soviet made plane on a domestic flight with YPT.
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